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What a glorious thing it was to live in the garden of 

THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS, NOW NO LONGER LAME! 

Page 258. 














THE GARDEN 

optfie 

LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 



MYRTLE JAMISON TRACHSEL 


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Illustrated hy 

L.J. Bfidgwan 



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BOSTON 

LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO. 



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Copyright, 1927, 

By Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 

All rights reserved 

The Garden of the Little Lame Princess 



PRINTED IN U. S. A. 


florwooO press 

BERWICK & SMITH CO. 

NORWOOD, MASS. 


MAY-6'27 


©Cl A978434 





To MY DAUGHTER, 

ELEANOR, 

WHO FIRST DISCOVERED 

THE GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 


PREFACE 


Did you ever hear of the little lame 
Princess? Do you know what happened in 
her garden? The editors—whose readers 
heard the story first, have said we might 
tell it again to you. And so we are grateful 
to Child Life, John Martin s Book—The 
Child’s Magazine, Holland’s Magazine, 
Farmer’s Wife, Successful Farming, and 
others. 

Please do not think badly of the little 
fairy who thought the gray bundles hang¬ 
ing to the shrubs were not worth opening. 
You know, she was very—oh, very much 
ashamed of herself when she learned there 
were butterflies inside waiting to be set 
free. 

Myrtle J. Trachsel. 
St. Joseph, Missouri, 

January, 1Q2J. 


8 




CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Winter in the Garden . . . 15 

II The Chickadee’s Breakfast . . 26 

III The Little Lost Bear 33 

IV The Coming of the Easter Lily . 43 

V Secrets.54 

VI Bunny Learns Many Things . 66 

VII Bunny Goes Again on a Long 

Journey .75 

VIII The Little Old Man and the 

Apple-Tree.86 

IX The Boastful Stranger ... 94 

X A Fairy Gives Advice . . . .103 

XI When the Sky and Earth Met . 115 

XII The Grand Prize.123 

XIII A Heart of Gold.13 l 

XIV How the Cornflower Came to 

the Garden.138 

XV The Dryad with the Silvery 

Voice .144 

XVI The Circus in the Garden . .152 


9 





IO 

CONTENTS 



chapter 

XVII 

Froggy’s Great Mistake . 

• 

PAGE 

161 

XVIII 

The Pool. 

• 

i 73 

XIX 

The Reward King .... 

• 

184 

XX 

Night in the Garden . 

• 

192 

XXI 

The Gold-Dust Flower . 

• 

202 

XXII 

The Happiness Fairy Finds 
Home . 

A 

• 

209 

XXIII 

The Wishing-Tree 

• 

216 

XXIV 

A Fairy at Play .... 

• 

224 

XXV 

Getting Ready for Winter . 

• 

231 

XXVI 

Mrs. Chipmunk’s Thankful 
Guest. 

241 

XXVII 

A Frost Elf in Mischief . 

• 

249 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

What a glorious thing it was to live in the gar¬ 
den of the little lame Princess, now no longer 
lame! (Page 258) .... Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Downy Woodpecker braced himself ... 20 

“Chickadee-dee-dee!” he sang.31 

Begging the little pussy-willows to play with 
him.36 

“Oh, look!” cried the boy.52 

His own mother did not know him ... 62 

The little fairy was overcome.71 

Poor Bunny fell on his nose.83 

“You will be as I am”.90 

“The little lame Princess will be interested” . 100 

The butterfly on the soft mushroom bed . .110 

Strung together in a rainbow ribbon . . .119 

“You darling flowers!”.130 


11 







12 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

“You must not think such things!” .... 133 

“How came this little stranger here?” . . 142 

“The water is here. Come!”.151 

“I am the most interesting member of the cir¬ 
cus!” .155 

Poor Froggy!.162 

A little trap-door in front of Bunny . . . 176 

“I am the Reward King”.187 

Only a little screech-owl.200 

“Carried so proudly” . . . . . . . 207 

The tiny bush hid the rabbit.211 

It was hard for Jean to catch him .... 220 

It was fun to see the seeds go sailing away . 229 

Then Grasshopper played a tune .... 238 

She saw Granny Meadow Mouse .... 247 

The fauqet in the cloud 


253 






THE GARDEN 
of the 

LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 






THE GARDEN 

OF THE 

LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

CHAPTER I 


WINTER IN THE GARDEN 


T HE sparrow heard of it first. He 
had found a cozy corner under 
the eaves that hung low over the 
nine windows of the castle room, where 
the little lame Princess lay on her couch. 
He sat by the hour in this place, sheltered 
from the cold wind, and watched the Prin¬ 
cess or listened to the song of her canary. 
It seemed to the sparrow that the yellow 
canary sang a great deal of the time. One 
day he pecked on the window-glass with 
his bill and asked the canary why he sang 
so much. 


15 


16 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

“The little Princess is lonely,” said the 
bird in the cage. “She misses the garden, 
the birds, and all the little people that 
played there during the summer. The 
goldfish that were brought in from the 
pool swim about all day in the large bowl. 
We want her to be happy, but it is hard for 
us to take the place of a garden full of 
bloom and song.” 

The canary picked up a seed and then 
began to sing again. The sparrow did not 
offer to help amuse the little Princess. But 
when he saw Bunny Puffball come from 
his home under the garden wall, he flew 
down to tell the rabbit the news. 

“The little Princess is lonely,” he said. 
“She misses the flowers and the little gar¬ 
den people that played here all summer.” 

Bunny looked about at the dull, dead 
garden. The pool was frozen over. Dry, 
ugly stalks were sticking up through the 
snow where the flowers had been. There 
was not a living thing in the garden ex- 


WINTER IN THE GARDEN 17 

cept the brown bird and the gray-brown 
rabbit. 

“No wonder she misses her summer 
garden,” said Bunny. “We must do some¬ 
thing to amuse her.” 

At that moment the chill wind blew the 
sparrow’s feathers the wrong way, and he 
hurried back to his shelter. At first Bunny 
could think of nothing he could do to 
amuse the little Princess. While he nibbled 
the bark of tender shoots he could see her 
watching from her window. He must do 
something. 

Now Bunny could jump very well; he 
was, in fact, very proud of his long hind 
legs. Perhaps the Princess would like to 
see him jump, he thought. He leaped over 
the garden-walks, he jumped over the 
flower-beds. Around and around he went, 
leaving a pretty pattern of tracks in the 
snow. The Princess clapped her hands and 
smiled at him, so Bunny did it all over 
again. But he could not run and jump all 


18 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

day. He must have help. When he stopped 
for breath, he thought of the two squirrels 
he had seen chasing each other from tree 
to tree. Bunny was sure the Princess would 
enjoy watching them, and he knew where 
to find the twin squirrels on a bright sun¬ 
shiny day. 

Sure enough, the squirrels were chasing 
each other from limb to limb and leaping 
from tree to tree. They were glad to show 
the Princess what they could do, and when 
Bunny assured them that there were no 
dogs in the garden, they raced for the stone 
wall that surrounded it. 

Bunny went on to the cornfield for a 
nibble of corn, and on his way back he 
stopped to examine some tracks he found 
on a snow-covered log. Tracks were like 
a newspaper to Bunny. He could look at 
them and tell what animal or bird had 
passed that way, and sometimes he could 
guess where it was going and what it was 
going to do. These were bird tracks, but 


WINTER IN THE GARDEN 19 

very strange ones. The track of most birds 
showed the print of three toes pointing for¬ 
ward and one back. The tracks upon the 
snow showed two toe-prints in front and 
two in the back. This fact told Bunny that 
a woodpecker had made them, and he 
guessed that Downy Woodpecker was 
near. 

Bunny listened until he heard the “tap, 
tap, tap,” of Downy’s bill, then hurried off 
to find him. The woodpecker was climbing 
up the trunk of a tree, tapping here and 
there with his bill and listening carefully. 

“Hello,” said Bunny. “Won’t you come 
to the garden and amuse the little Princess 
by walking around the tree trunks?” 

But Downy Woodpecker had heard a 
dull sound that told him a borer was hid¬ 
ing inside the trunk of the tree. He paid 
no attention to Bunny, but clung tight to 
the bark with his sharp claws, braced him¬ 
self with his stiff tail-feathers, and set him¬ 
self to cutting away the wood with his bill. 


20 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

He was hungry and wanted that fat grub 
for dinner. Not until he had made a hole 
large enough to run in his long, forked 
tongue and pull out the grub, would he 
listen to Bunny. The little rabbit did not 
mind. He enjoyed watching the bird work, 
and he was glad the grub could do the tree 
no more harm. 



Downy Woodpecker was willing to go 
to the garden and amuse the little lame 
Princess, but h6 said he thought Chicka¬ 
dee’s tricks much more interesting. Bunny 
wondered why he had not thought of Billy 




WINTER IN THE GARDEN 


21 


Chickadee, whose cheery call of “Chick-a- 
dee-dee-dee,” could be heard in the woods, 
no matter how cold the day. He heard it 
now off in the distance, and hurried in that 
direction when the woodpecker had flown 
down to the garden. 

Billy Chickadee was playing with two 
of his cousins, Titmouse and Nuthatch. 
All were stout little birds, dressed in slate 
color with black-and-white markings. Tit¬ 
mouse wore a topknot upon his head, 
where the other two wore black caps. The 
little rabbit begged them all to come to the 
garden and help him amuse the little lame 
Princess. 

“She is lonely without the birds and 
flowers of summer, and she will enjoy 
watching Chickadee swing from the limbs 
of the trees.” 

Chickadee was very proud of the trick 
of swinging by his toes while he searched 
the under sides of the branches for hidden 
grubs and insect-eggs. But he declared 


22 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

that the things done by Nuthatch were 
more amusing. 

Bunny knew nothing about the bird 
with the queer name, so he was very much 
surprised, when they reached the garden, 
to see Nuthatch not only climbing up the 
trunks of the trees but also running down 
them head first. Bunny thought he surely 
would fall, but he did not. He seemed to en¬ 
joy standing on his head. From a low limb 
hung the Chickadee. Downy Woodpecker 
had discovered a borer in the oak-tree and 
was busy drilling a hole. Among the 
branches of the trees the squirrels still 
played, and at one of the nine windows 
could be seen the smiling face of the little 
Princess. She was no longer lonely. 

In the midst of the frolic the gardener 
appeared with queer-looking objects in his 
hands. The squirrels, the birds, and the 
little rabbit watched him from the tops of 
near-by trees, from the garden wall, and 
from the hidden hole under the wall. From 


WINTER IN THE GARDEN 


2 3 


her window the Princess watched. When 
the gardener went away he left something 
on the ground and something in the oak- 
tree. What could these things be? The 
bright object on the ground reminded 
Bunny of the carrots he had found in the 
garden. The very thought of them made 
his mouth water. He crept closer. It was a 
carrot! Besides the carrot there were nuts, 
cracked and ready for the squirrels, that 
caught them up in dainty paws, and, fac¬ 
ing the window of the Princess, nodded 
their thanks while they nibbled at them. 

Seeing these things, the birds flew to the 
platform in the tree and found the things 
they liked—suet and seeds. There were not 
many tricks after that for a time; they were 
busy eating and thanking the Princess. 
Chickadee flew to her window ledge and 
showed her how quickly he could break 
the hull from the sunflower seed he wished 
to eat. Jaybird heard the joyous sounds and 
added his bit of bright color to the winter 


24 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

garden. It was all very gay and jolly until 
the sun disappeared behind the castle wall. 

Then the birds went off to feather-lined 
nests, and Bunny crept into his warm hole 
under the garden wall. The little rabbit 
was very happy. The little Princess had not 
been lonely, and he was sure she would not 
be. Chickadee would come to the garden 
every day, no matter how cold the weather, 
and he was sure the rest of them could 
leave their warm nests a little earlier than 
usual if it made the Princess happy to see 
them. 

This, however, was not necessary. Jack 
Frost had seen Bunny and his friends 
amusing the little Princess, and he decided 
to help them. That night he called nine of 
his frost elves and set them to painting 
fairy gardens on the nine windows of the 
castle room. There were gardens with tall 
palm-trees and lacy ferns, gardens with 
mountains in the distance and tall pines, 
—beautiful gardens they were, and all sil- 


WINTER IN THE GARDEN 25 

very white. Then Jack Frost whispered to 
the birds, the squirrels, and to Bunny, and 
told them they need not get up until the 
sun had made the garden warm and bright. 

“The Princess will have fairy gardens 
to amuse her until that time to-morrow 
morning, and every morning until the 
spring brings back the flowers.” So said 
Jack Frost, and so it was. The little lame 
Princess was no longer lonely. 


CHAPTER II 

THE CHICKADEE’S BREAKFAST 

O NE winter morning when the sun 
had partly melted the frost pic¬ 
tures from the window by the 
bed of the little lame Princess, she raised 
the sash and scattered crumbs on the sill. 
Snow covered the window-sill, and the yel¬ 
low crumbs could plainly be seen. She 
waited some time, her eyes upon the win¬ 
dow, and then she said, “I wonder why 
Chickadee does not come.” 

“Perhaps he is not hungry,” said the 
Nurse. “Or he might have overslept.” 

The Princess patiently waited a much 
longer time. 

“I don’t believe he is coming this morn¬ 
ing,” she said at last, “and I saved him 

some of my sponge cake.” 

26 


THE CHICKADEE'S BREAKFAST 


27 


The yellow crumbs could still be plainly 
seen on the white snow. 

“Something may have happened to 
him,” said the nurse. “He may have been 
killed, or he may have frozen to death last 
night.” 

But nothing at all had happened to little 
Chickadee, that is, nothing of importance, 
and yet at that very moment he was sitting 
all huddled up on a tiny limb and was as 
miserable as any little bird could be. He 
had forgotten all about his breakfast. If 
only he had not seen the blue jay when he 
peeped from his cozy little house that 
morning! 

His fluffy feathers had kept him warm 
all through the cold night. The sun came 
out and he was just ready to burst into his 
cheery song when he saw Jaybird. Of 
course he had seen the jay many times be¬ 
fore, but until that moment he had not no¬ 
ticed how very beautiful was this bird’s 
coat of blue trimmed in black and white. 


28 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

Chickadee looked at his own dull, grayish- 
brown coat. It seemed very plain and ugly 
to him, and the little bird’s heart was sad. 
He was much too sad to sing. 

“Ah me,” he thought, “if I had a beau¬ 
tiful coat like the jay’s I could fly to the 
little Princess and make her happy just by 
showing her my beauty. I could make her 
poor dead garden gay with my bright 
colors.” 

The more he thought about it the more 
unhappy he became. The bare branches 
of the trees seemed to whisper together, 
and the little Chickadee thought they said: 

Dull and brown, dull and brown, 

Poor little bird, his coat is brown. 

Now the branches were not talking 
about the chickadee at all; they would not 
have been so unkind. But the little bird did 
not know he could always find something 
to be unhappy about if he looked for it. He 
wanted to hop back into his little home in 


THE CHICKADEE'S BREAKFAST 


29 


a knot of the tree, and hide himself. But as 
he hopped along he passed the hollow in 
which the old owl slept. 

“Ah,” sighed the little Chickadee, 
“there’s a splendid bird. If I were large 
like the owl, I could do so many things for 
my friends, but I am so small I can do 
nothing.” 

The branches were still whispering, and 
Chickadee thought they said: 

Poor little bird, he is so small; 

There’s almost none of him at all. 

If Chickadee had understood their lan¬ 
guage, he would have known they were 
talking about their leaf-buds that were 
ready to burst their jackets as soon as the 
sun was warm enough; and the little bird 
would not have been so sad. 

Then he heard some one calling him. 
“Chickadee, Chickadee, where are you?” 

The little bird saw beneath him little 
Bunny Puffball. 


3 o GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

“Why don’t you come to the garden?” 
the rabbit wanted to know. “We are so 
lonely without you, the Princess and I.” 

“Lonely without me?” asked Chicka¬ 
dee, very much surprised. 

“Yes, indeed. You are the only song-bird 
we have since the redbird left us. And on a 
sunny day like this we need you to help us 
feel jolly.” 

The little bird fluffed his feathers while 
his heart beat happily. It was nice to know 
he could please folks just by singing his 
cheery little song. 

“Chick-a-dee, chick-a-dee-dee-dee,” he 
sang. 

“The squirrels will come out when they 
hear your song, and we will all have a big 
play together,” said the rabbit, as they hur¬ 
ried along to the garden. 

The squirrels did come out, and Chick¬ 
adee sang his song again and again. The 
more he sang the happier he became, and 


THE CHICKADEE’S BREAKFAST 31 

then he remembered his breakfast. He hur¬ 
ried to one of the nine castle windows and 
saw the yellow crumbs on the window-sill. 



“Chickadee-dee-dee!” he sang. 


How glad he was he had come! The little 
Princess pressed her nose against the 
window-pane, and he saw how delighted 
she was to have him come. He fluffed his 
feathers and hopped about in his most en- 



32 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

tertaining manner while picking up the 
crumbs. Now and then he stopped long 
enough to sing his happy song. 

When all the crumbs were gone he hung 
by his toes to a limb close by, and showed 
the little Princess how he searched along 
the twigs for his breakfast when there were 
no crumbs to be had. 

“Chickadee-dee-dee!” he sang. What he 
really meant was, “I thank you very much, 
and hope you are happy.” 

Jaybird came to the garden, and Chick¬ 
adee admired his blue coat without feeling 
bad about his own. Titmouse, Nuthatch, 
and Downy Woodpecker came, asking 
why Chickadee let them sleep so long. 
Chickadee had not known they were de¬ 
pending upon him to wake them. It made 
him feel very important and very proud, 
and never again did the little lame Prin¬ 
cess have to wait so long for his coming. 


CHAPTER III 


THE LITTLE LOST BEAR 

A GENERAL spring house-clean¬ 
ing had been ordered in the gar¬ 
den of the little lame Princess, 
and in the woods all around it. The March 
wind was the broom, and with much blus¬ 
ter and noise he threw down from the trees 
all the old bird-nests that could not be used 
a second summer, and swept the old leaves 
and the trash down into the hollows. Then 
the heavy rains came to carry all the trash 
away, and dust things off nicely. 

When it was all over, Chickadee and 
Bunny went out to see what had happened. 
The sun was shining warmly, and every¬ 
thing was clean and fresh. On the south 
side of the castle in a sheltered place they 
found a dandelion. 


33 



34 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

“I wonder if the pussy willows are out,” 
said Chickadee. 

“I wonder if they are,” said Bunny Puff¬ 
ball. And without another word the two 
started for the willow-tree in the heart of 
the woods. 

They stopped a minute to call to Gray 
Squirrel as they passed the maple-tree. The 
squirrel was having a dainty meal from 
the tender maple buds, and the bees were 
there, too, drinking the sweet syrup that 
dripped from the twigs Jack Frost had 
broken off in his frolics. To their surprise 
they found other bees buzzing about a big 
cottonwood tree. 

“I wonder what they are doing here,” 
said Bunny. He had once had an angry 
bee sting him on the nose, and ever since 
that time he had kept as far away from the 
bees as possible. The Chickadee went 
closer, and found they were carrying off 
some of the fragrant wax that had sealed 
the buds. This was called propolis, or bee 


THE LITTLE LOST BEAR 35 

mortar, and the bees used it to patch the 
leaky roofs of their houses. 

“Have all of you leaky roofs?” asked 
Chickadee, noticing how many bees were 
coming for the wax. 

Several bees stopped long enough to ex¬ 
plain that there were many repairs to 
be made before honey-gathering really 
started, and those who did not need the 
wax at that time were careful to lay by a 
supply, as it could be found only a short 
time in early spring. 

“Very interesting,” said Bunny, as they 
went on their way. “Oh, look, there is the 
willow-tree covered with pussy-willows. 
But what is that under it? Can it be a giant 
pussy willow?” 

Bunny jumped behind a fallen log, but 
Chickadee flew to the willow tree and dis¬ 
covered the furry object was a chubby 
baby bear. He was begging the little 
pussy-willows on the tree to come and play 
with him. 



Begging the little pussy-willows to play with him. 

36 


THE LITTLE LOST BEAR 37 

“Come down, little bears. Come down 
and play with me,” he said. 

Bunny giggled when he heard that, but 
Chickadee tried to explain: 

. “They are not bears. They are the wil¬ 
low’s blossoms. They wear fur coats be¬ 
cause they like to come out early in the 
spring. Look at this one and you will see 
the little brown seeds are beginning to 
form.” 

The little bear could scarcely believe it. 
He took the pussy-willow Chickadee 
threw down to him and examined it very 
carefully. He tried to eat it, but found it 
not exactly to his liking. After he had stud¬ 
ied it a few moments he turned and lum¬ 
bered off, but the others noticed he did not 
go very far. He sat down on a log under a 
locust tree and looked at the branches to 
which the long, dry bean-pods still clung, 
rattling loudly in the wind. 

“What is the matter?” called Chickadee. 

“I never saw this old thorny tree before, 


38 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

so I must be lost. I am trying to think 
which way I should go.” 

“Where do you live?” 

“I live in a cave, but I do not know 
where the cave is. I had never been out of 
it before, and I am afraid I went too far.” 

“Dearie me,” said Bunny, standing up 
straight behind his log, “I am afraid you 
did go too far.” He was not afraid of a 
baby bear. “Most of the moss grows on the 
north side of the trees, you know. You can 
get your directions from that.” 

“But I don’t know what direction I came 
from.” 

“Dearie me,” said Bunny, again. “How 
very young you are.” 

Neither Chickadee nor Bunny had ever 
been lost, but because the little bear did 
not whine or cry when he found himself 
in trouble, they wanted very much to help 
him. Finally Bunny said, “Your eyes are 
very small for so large a head, but you can 
see well enough, can’t you?” 


THE LITTLE LOST BEAR 


39 


“Oh, yes, I can see very well indeed.” 

“Then follow those footprints over there 
and they will take you home.” 

The little bear examined the footprints, 
fitted his feet into them to make certain 
they were his, and started off happily. But 
this time he did not go far. 

“What is the matter?” asked Chickadee. 

“This is a rocky place, and I can find 
no more footprints.” 

“Dearie me,” said Bunny, “you must be 
very, very young. Do you see any broken 
twigs that might show which way you 

“Oh, yes. I stopped here to eat a few 
swollen buds, and over there I dug a nice 
juicy root.” 

In a short time he stopped again. He 
could find no more broken twigs, and he 
had not picked up his trail again. 

“Now listen, little bear,” said Bunny. 
“When you came to the willow-tree did 
you come down the mountain, up the 


4 o GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

mountain, or around the mountain?” 

“I came straight down the mountain, 
and now I must go straight up the moun¬ 
tain. Thank you, good friends; I am sure 
I shall find my way now.” 

He hurried away as fast as he could go, 
and was soon hidden by the trees. Bunny 
and Chickadee played with the pussy¬ 
willows, and presently, to their great sur¬ 
prise, they saw the same little bear coming 
from the opposite direction. 

“Well!” cried the little bear, very much 
surprised himself. 

“Well, indeed!” said Chickadee. “You 
must have traveled in a circle.” 

Although the bear was greatly disap¬ 
pointed he did not give up. He sat down to 
think about it. 

“Little bear,” said Bunny, “can you 
smell, or is your nose too young?” 

“I can smell,” cried the little bear, hap¬ 
pily. “Perhaps I can find the way home 
with my nose.” 


THE LITTLE LOST BEAR 41 

“Wait. You may take the trail that will 
lead you back here. You want to go 
straight up the mountain. Did you ever 
hear the rule for going straight?” 

The little bear shook his head. 

“Then remember this. Sight three trees 
or other objects directly in line. Then 
when you reach the first, sight another di¬ 
rectly in line with the two that are left, and 
so on. Just remember that, and you will go 
straight.” 

The little bear sighted three trees, and 
then, with a grateful word of thanks, 
started out again, but this time the rabbit 
and the chickadee nodded to each other 
and silently followed along behind. 

“He is very, very young,” whispered 
Bunny. “I think we had better see that he 
gets back to his home.” 

But the little bear had learned his lesson 
well. Up he went and on up, without once 
turning aside. Up and up, much farther 
than Bunny had ever been before, and up 


42 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

there, near the top of the mountain, they 
saw a mother bear hurrying to meet the 
little fellow. 

“I think we had better go back to the 
garden of the little lame Princess,” said 
Bunny. “I never was much of a traveler.” 


CHAPTER IV 


THE COMING OF THE EASTER LILY 

S INCE the first warm days of spring 
so many things had been happening 
in the woods and in the garden that 
Bunny Puffball could not rest for fear of 
missing something. He managed to sleep 
with one eye open, and satisfied his appe¬ 
tite by nibbling fresh young shoots as he 
hurried along. 

Even before the spring house-cleaning 
in the woods, Bunny had some very excit¬ 
ing adventures. When he could find time 
to lie down for a moment in his cozy little 
home under the garden wall, he liked to 
think of the night a flock of wild geese 
rested in the marsh at the foot of the moun¬ 
tain. He had seen them flying low over the 
woods, the leader in front and the others 
forming a great wedge behind. 

43 


44 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

Bunny had hurried to the marsh and 
watched the flock as it fed. He had crept 
quite close to the big leader when he was 
resting. In the faint light of early morning 
he saw the leader rise in the air and start 
northward, followed by the others in regu¬ 
lar order. He watched until the flying V 
grew smaller and disappeared entirely, 
then he sighed. It seemed very lonely after 
they had gone. 

One day he had heard the redbird’s call 
of “Cheerily, cheerily. Come here, come 
here. Quick, quick, quick!” and had hur¬ 
ried to welcome the beautiful bird. He was 
glad he could show this old friend where 
to find enough seeds for several dinners. 
Then Bluebird and Robin had appeared. 

The red-bud trees had burst into bloom, 
and hither Bunny had gone to visit with 
the squirrels. Red squirrels, fox squirrels, 
and gray squirrels could all be found feast¬ 
ing on the red buds. 


THE COMING OF THE EASTER LILY 45 

The trees and the plants were putting 
forth new leaves and green shoots. Some 
insects were flying through the air, but 
Bunny was much surprised to see a full- 
grown cricket hopping along the garden- 
path, as few crickets were able to live 
through the winter. 

“Hello,” said Bunny. “Where did you 
come from?” 

Cricket waved one of his forelegs to¬ 
wards the castle. “I came from the castle. 
You know the little lame Princess invited 
me to spend the winter with her.” 

Bunny had heard nothing about such an 
invitation, and he was much surprised. 
“How did she happen to ask you?” 

“She wanted a musician to sit on her 
hearth and sing her to sleep.” 

The rabbit’s eyes opened wide in aston¬ 
ishment, but he could only repeat, “How 
did she happen to ask you?” 

Cricket held his head high. “She liked 


46 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

my singing better than any other that she 
heard during the summer, so she asked 
me to come into the castle.” 

“Well, well,” said Bunny; “that is most 
surprising.” 

He had never considered the cricket 
much of a singer, but he could not well 
doubt his word, since it was plain the 
cricket had spent the winter in some warm 
place. 

“I merely came out for a little air, and 
to see how things were growing,” he re¬ 
marked, grandly. “Food and drink are fur¬ 
nished me in the castle.” 

They went first to the bed of violets, but 
the cricket was not impressed with the 
modest blossoms. 

“If you want to see real flowers, come 
with me,” he invited; and he led the way 
to the castle room with the nine windows. 
There upon the window-sill were pots 
holding tall shafts of green, and upon each 
shaft were three or four pure-white lilies. 


THE COMING OF THE EASTER LILY 47 

“Oh!” exclaimed Bunny. “What are 
they?” 

“Easter lilies.” The cricket turned away, 
and the rabbit would have followed if he 
had not heard the little Princess and her 
nurse talking together about the lilies. 

“Won’t you tell me again the story about 
the Easter lily,” begged the Princess. The 
nurse promised, and Bunny pressed close 
to the wall under the window that was 
raised at the bottom. He wished very much 
that he might hear more about the beauti¬ 
ful flower. 

Said the nurse: “In the long ago when 
many of the flowers were still young, there 
grew a beautiful field of lilies. Some had 
blossoms of lavender hue, some were rose- 
colored, some blue, and some golden. As 
they stood on their long stems, turning 
their faces to the sun, a more beautiful 
sight could never be seen. 

“Mother Nature came to this wonderful 
field of lilies with a request. 


48 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

“ ‘You are the most beautiful flowers in 
all my kingdom,’ she said, ‘that is why I 
come to you.’ 

“The lilies nodded and whispered 
among themselves. ‘What is it you would 
have of us?’ inquired a tall lily, the most 
beautiful of all in the field. Its petals were a 
soft blue, perfect in shape and gracefully 
curving away from the yellow stamens in 
the center. 

“ ‘I would send a messenger to remind 
the people that they need not fear death, 
but through it they will be led to a life of 
greater beauty.’ Mother Nature looked di¬ 
rectly at the tall blue lily. ‘Will you go?’ 
she asked. 

“The beautiful lily was flattered and 
said she would like to go. 

“ ‘Are you willing to die that the people 
may see you live again?’ asked Mother 
Nature. ‘You must lose your beauty, be 
tucked away in a little brown case and laid 
in the ground. Unless this is done, the peo- 


THE COMING OF THE EASTER LILY 49 

pie will not understand the message of new 
life.’ 

“ ‘Oh, no,’ cried the lily, ‘I would not 
like to lose my beauty. Please do not ask 
me to go.’ 

“Mother Nature turned to the lovely 
rose-colored lily. ‘Will you go?’ she asked. 
But the rose lily shook her head and was 
silent. Mother Nature went all over the 
field, searching for a willing messenger, 
but could find none. She was just about to 
give up when she heard a timid voice be¬ 
side her. 

“ ‘Dear Mother Nature, I would gladly 
go, but I am not beautiful.’ 

“Mother Nature looked down at the 
speaker, and saw that this lily truly was 
not beautiful. A rock had rolled upon it 
and caused its stem to grow crooked. The 
blossom, held close to the ground by the 
rock, was scarred and ugly. Mother Na¬ 
ture smiled down at her. ‘Service will make 
you beautiful,’ she murmured. 


50 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

“The lily was content, although it did 
not understand the strange words. Will¬ 
ingly and gladly it bent its head and died, 
thinking only that in so doing it could take 
a glad and joyous message to the people 
of the earth. When its flowers and leaves 
were quite gone Mother Nature wrapped 
in a dull-brown covering the little spark 
of life that was left. And so the lily went 
out into the world. 

“A little boy and a little girl found it 
one day when they were playing in the 
park. They played catch with it for a time, 
and then tossed it aside into a little hollow 
by the walk. They forgot all about it, but 
Mother Nature was watching. She sent 
the rains to wash the dirt over it, and one 
day, when the sun was warm, she called 
to the lily bulb, ‘Come now, the people are 
ready for your message.’ 

“So the lily burst its brown wrapper and 
began to grow. Up went its stalk, no longer 


THE COMING OF THE EASTER LILY 51 

bent and ugly, but straight and tall. Up 
and up it went towards the sun. Then one 
Sunday morning it opened its flowers. 
Back curled the long white petals, pure 
white now and ten times more beautiful 
than any lily of the field, and its soft fra¬ 
grance filled the air. 

“Suddenly the church bells began to 
ring. A little boy and a little girl came run¬ 
ning down the street, but they stopped 
short when they saw the white lily. 

“ ‘Oh, look!’ cried the boy. ‘It is an Eas¬ 
ter lily.’ 

“ ‘An Easter lily!’ echoed the little girl. 
‘That ugly dead bulb we threw away must 
have come to life again.’ 

“None who passed that day failed to 
read the message of the pure-white lily. 
The plant thrived, and soon there were 
many Easter lilies, and all over the land 
people may read their message at Easter 
time. 















THE COMING OF THE EASTER LILY 53 

When the nurse finished the story, the 
little rabbit, crouching down by the win¬ 
dow, heard the little Princess sigh. 

“What became of the other lilies of the 
field, the rose lily, the golden lily, the blue 
and the lavender lilies?” the Princess 
asked. 

“No one knows,” said the nurse. “No 
one had ever seen those lilies but Mother 
Nature herself, and no one has heard any¬ 
thing more about them. You know there is 
an old saying, ‘Selfishness destroys itself,’ 
and sometimes I think we may never see 
the blue, the golden, the lavender, and the 
rose sisters of the Easter lily.” 


CHAPTER V 


SECRETS 

I N his snug little home under the gar¬ 
den wall, Bunny opened one eye. 
Something told him it was time to get 
up, but something else seemed to tell him 
he might as well take another nap. He 
raised one long ear and listened to Robin’s 
happy song and the soft patter of the 
spring rain. 

Robin was never so cheerful as when it 
rained. “Come, come, good wife. Worms 
can be had for the picking.” 

Bunny curled himself up, ready for an¬ 
other nap. He did not mind the rain, but 
why should one be in a hurry to get out of 
bed on a rainy morning? He thought of 
the tender lettuce growing in the vegetable 
garden of the little Princess, but that could 

54 


SECRETS 


55 


wait—he was not very hungry. He thought 
of Chickadee, and as he closed his eyes 
again he was wondering why his cheerful 
little playmate had not been about the 
garden. 

When the little rabbit again found him¬ 
self awake, he heard a chorus of bird 
voices in the garden. He hurried outside 
and blinked in the bright sunlight. Blue¬ 
bird, the oriole, and the wrens were out, in¬ 
sects were buzzing about, and all the 
morning flowers were out. The cherry- 
tree had shaken the raindrops from her 
leaves and had gone to work in earnest. 
Very early she had put out pure-white 
blossoms to attract the bees, and had paid 
them well for carrying the pollen from 
flower to flower. Now she hoped to grow 
a cherry where each blossom had been, and 
it was quite a task to supply each little 
green cherry with the sap it needed to help 
it grow. 

Robin was still hopping about the gar- 


56 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

den with head on one side, listening for 
the careless worms that dared venture near 
the surface. 

“Come with me to the lettuce-patch and 
have a good breakfast,” invited Bunny. 
But Robin declared he would rather eat 
worms when they could be found so easily. 

Ladybird was on guard at the lettuce- 
patch, but the tiny beetle did not try to 
keep Bunny from eating the leaves. “I 
heard the little lame Princess tell the gar¬ 
dener to plant a great deal of lettuce so 
you and the birds might have some of it. 
She said the birds were very useful in keep¬ 
ing harmful insects out of the garden.” 

“Did she say I was useful?” Bunny en¬ 
quired. 

Ladybird hesitated, not wanting to hurt 
the little rabbit’s feelings. “She said she 
liked to watch you playing about, and 
didn’t mind if you nibbled things in the 
garden.” 


SECRETS 


57 


Even that much of a compliment 
pleased the little rabbit, and he began to 
eat the tender lettuce. Presently he found 
a small green insect that was sucking sap 
from the under side of a leaf. “Oh, look!” 

“It is an aphis,” said Ladybird. “I will 
send one of my children.” 

Soon a tiny little insect, that looked 
much like a lizard, came to gobble up the 
aphis and hungrily search for more. 

“Your children do not look very much 
like you,” Bunny said to Ladybird. 

“Indeed they do not. But when they have 
had the change that comes to most insects, 
they will look exactly like me.” 

While he nibbled at the lettuce Bunnv 

0 

again thought of his good friend the chick¬ 
adee, and after a time went in search of 
him. Neither Billy nor Mrs. Chickadee 
was in the knothole where they had some¬ 
times rested on winter days. Woodpecker 
was standing on the side of the dead tree 


58 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

where he so often searched for insects, and 
with his strong bill was pounding out a 
round hole. 

“Why are you making that round hole?” 
Bunny wanted to know. 

Woodpecker stopped his work long 
enough to reply, “That is a secret. But if 
you will come back in a week or so, per¬ 
haps I will tell you.” 

Although Bunny begged and begged, 
the pretty black, white, and red bird would 
not tell his secret. He was glad, however, 
to give the little rabbit news of his friend 
the Chickadee. Woodpecker had heard 
that Billy and his mate had gone high up 
on the mountain to spend the summer, and 
Bunny started for the mountain. 

On his way he passed through a clover 
field that was one of his favorite feeding- 
places. He stopped for lunch and then 
hurried on. The woods on the side of the 
mountain were fresh and green, and 
Bunny did not mind the mud. Now and 


SECRETS 


59 


then he stopped to look at the flowers or to 
talk to some bird or insect friend. Once he 
hid a maple seed that was trying to fly away 
from a greedy squirrel. 

“The squirrels eat so many of us,” she 
sighed. “There will be no young maple- 
trees unless a few of us escape.” 

Bunny told her to lie still against a log 
and he would cover her with leaves. 

“Oh, thank you,” said the winged seed. 
“This is a lovely place in which to rest dur¬ 
ing the summer and winter. When spring 
comes again I will send my white root deep 
into the ground and begin to grow.” 

The squirrels that were feeding upon 
the maple seeds told Bunny they had seen 
Chickadee near the top of the mountain. 
So the little rabbit hurried on, stopping 
now and then to get his breath. 

It was while he rested near the top of the 
mountain that he heard Jaybird screaming, 
“Thief, thief, thief!” and looked up to find 
a little bear in the act of robbing the bees 


6 o GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

of their honey. It was the very young bear 
that had visited the willow-tree when the 
pussy-willows were hanging on it; now he 
clutched the bee-tree and tried to scoop out 
all the honey the bees had saved from their 
winter’s supply. The bees swarmed angrily 
about his head, stinging him on his ears 
and his nose. With the dripping honey¬ 
comb held tight against his chest, the little 
bear had started to climb down, but just 
then a bee stung him on the end of his nose. 
That was more than any little bear could 
stand. He dropped the honeycomb to the 
ground and struck at the swarming bees. 
In a moment he lost his grip on the tree and 
landed on his back in the mass of broken 
honeycomb. Over and over he rolled in the 
mud, and as he rolled, the dead leaves and 
twigs stuck to his fur that had been 
smeared with honey and mud. When he 
finally sat up and looked at himself there 
was not a bit of brown fur to be seen. The 
little bear did not recognize himself at all. 


SECRETS 


61 


“Where am I?” he asked. 

Bunny wanted to tell him he was there 
under the mud and trash that covered his 
coat, but the fact that the little bear 
thought he had lost himself was so amus¬ 
ing, that Bunny burst out laughing. 

“Oh,” cried the little bear, “if I am not 
myself, who am I?” 

“Thief, thief, thief!” screamed Jaybird, 
who was enjoying the little bear’s alarm. 

Very much frightened, the bear hurried 
away to find himself. Bunny followed. He 
tried to tell the little fellow he had not lost 
himself, but he was laughing so hard he 
could not talk. Before they had gone far 
they met friendly old Raccoon, and the lit¬ 
tle bear called to him, “Oh, tell me, please, 
where am I?” 

The raccoon looked at the strange ob¬ 
ject before him, and then ran off into the 
woods as fast as he could go. The little bear 
became all the more frightened, and ran 
home as fast as he could go. The big 


62 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

mother bear was lying in the sun before the 
door of the cave. She got up when she saw 
the strange little animal running towards 
her, and when he came nearer, she struck 



His own mother did not know him. 


him a blow over the head that sent him 
tumbling, and disappeared inside the cave. 

When even his own mother did not 
know him, the little bear ran off in great 
fright. 



SECRETS 


63 


“Wait,” called Bunny, for he was still 
laughing so hard he could not run fast. 
Suddenly Bunny’s little friend, the chicka¬ 
dee, called from the top of a tree: “What is 
this? What is this? Chick-a-dee!” 

“Oh, Chickadee, where am I? Please tell 
me,” begged the little bear. 

“You are there on the ground,” replied 
the bird. “But what are you? That is what 
I would like to know.” 

At last Bunny stopped laughing long 
enough to explain. “It is the young bear we 
met at the willow-tree. He got himself cov¬ 
ered with honey and then rolled in the mud 
and leaves. He thinks he has lost himself.” 

“He is very young,” said Billy. Then he 
told the little bear he was not far from him¬ 
self, and that if he would go and sit in the 
brook he would soon find himself again. 
The little fellow started for the brook, and 
Bunny and Chickadee began to tell each 
other how glad they were to meet again. 

“Why did you leave the garden of the 


64 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

little lame Princess?” Bunny wanted to 
know. 

“So many birds were returning that it 
was becoming crowded. Mrs. Chickadee 
and myself feared our secret would not be 
safe there.” 

“What secret?” asked Bunny. 

Chickadee glanced up at the tree-top. “I 
cannot tell you now, but if you will come 
back in a week or so-” 

“Is the secret in this tree?” Bunny 
asked. Chickadee nodded, but he would 
say no more about it. He wanted to hear 
the latest news of the little Princess and her 
garden, and Bunny was glad to tell it. 

Finally he started home again, promis¬ 
ing to come back soon and hear more 
about the secret. As he went down the 
mountain-side he passed the brook, and 
was surprised to see the little bear still sit¬ 
ting in the water. 

“Why don’t you get out?” asked Bunny. 
“Haven’t you found yourself yet?” 



SECRETS 


65 


“Oh, yes, I am right here. But I have 
learned that I can catch fish if I sit very 
still and allow them to come near; they are 
very good to eat.” 

Bunny laughed and went on his way, 
leaving the little bear sitting in the brook, 
waiting for the fish to swim by. 


CHAPTER VI 


BUNNY LEARNS MANY THINGS 

B UNNY PUFFBALL was lying 
in the warm sun half asleep, when 
something tickled him on the nose. 
Opening one eye, he saw a baby cricket 
sitting there and looking about at the 
world as if he were discovering something. 
Bunny wiggled his nose, and the little fel¬ 
low jumped to the ground. The rabbit 
stared at him, and after a moment he 
blinked his eyes and stared the harder: an¬ 
other little cricket exactly like the first had 
popped up out of the earth and was hop¬ 
ping about on six spry legs. 

“Well,” said Bunny, “where did you 
come from?” 

The baby crickets did not answer, but 

began to nibble at a leaf. They were black 

66 


BUNNY LEARNS MANY THINGS 67 

and shiny, and looked exactly like the old 
cricket that had spent the winter on the 
hearth of the little lame Princess, but these 
babies had no wings, and, of course, no 
hard cases or coverings for wings. 

“See here,” cried Bunny, “where did 
you leave your wings?” 

Still the crickets did not answer, and 
while Bunny was wondering if they were 
too young to talk, another popped up out 
of the ground. 

“Where are you coming from?” Bunny 
wanted to know. But the crickets would 
not tell. They were hopping about as if 
playing a game, and tasting every leaf 
near them. 

“See here,” cried Bunny, “you shouldn’t 
be tasting everything within reach; you 
might come upon the deadly nightshade 
and be poisoned. Where is your mother? 
You had better stay with her.” 

Bunny heard a low laugh behind him, 
and when he turned around he was sur- 


68 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

prised to see a tiny fairy sitting under a 
shrub near by. 

“Those little crickets are just hatching 
out,” the fairy told him. “Last fall the 
mother placed the eggs in the ground and 
left them there. The warm sun hatched 
the eggs, and the little crickets can feed 
and clothe themselves. When they outgrow 
the suits they are wearing, they will burst 
them open and step out in new and larger 
ones. By the time they get the last suits, 
their wings will have grown.” 

“Well, well,” said Bunny, “how many 
things there are to learn.” 

Other little crickets had hopped out of 
the ground and gone to a puddle of water 
for a drink. Bunny was sure they could 
take care of themselves, and he turned his 
attention to the little fairy; he could not 
remember having seen one before. He 
wanted to know how she happened to be 
there. 


BUNNY LEARNS MANY THINGS 69 

“I am one of the fairies that help the 
Fairy Grandmother take care of the gar¬ 
den. How would the birds know when to 
come in the spring if the Bird fairy did not 
call each one at the proper time? How 
could they build such wonderful nests 
without her help? How could the flowers 
grow without the help of the flower 
fairies?” 

“I thought Mother Nature took care of 
such things.” 

“Mother Nature must see to everything 
on earth that grows, and she must have 
helpers in every garden.” 

Again Bunny said, “Well, well, how 
many things there are to learn.” He asked 
the fairy what her work was in the garden, 
and was surprised to see a very ugly frown 
upon her face. 

“I have been in the nursery, but now 
that I am old enough to work, I wanted to 
bring something pretty to the garden. I 


70 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

had hoped to work with the flowers or the 
birds. When the Fairy Grandmother first 
came to our little underground room, I 
was awake, but she did not send me out to 
hang the pussy-willows on the willow- 
trees. When she came again, it was to send 
some one to push the crocuses and the 
snowdrops through the ground; the Bird 
fairy was chosen and still I waited.” 

The little fairy wiped the tears from her 
eyes and continued: “I should have been 
so glad if I had been allowed to set the 
fruit-trees to blooming,—the peach and 
plum, the cherry and the apple; or I 
should have been content to bring the 
bloom to the flowering shrubs or the iris 
border. But alas! This morning I was 
given this little knife and told to—to—” 
The little fairy was so overcome by grief 
at her sad misfortune that she could say no 
more. 

“To what?” questioned Bunny, impa¬ 
tiently. “What were you told to do?” 





BUNNY LEARNS MANY THINGS 


7i 


“To—to open all of those ugly little 
bundles.” She pointed to one of the de- 



The little fairy was overcome. 




72 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

spised bundles hanging just above her 
head and sobbed, “I—I did so want to 
b-bring something beautiful to the garden 
of the little lame Princess.” 

Bunny Puffball stood up very straight 
and looked sternly at the little fairy. “Lis¬ 
ten,” he said. “You have taught me many 
things about baby crickets and about 
fairies. Now I am going to tell you some¬ 
thing. If you were told to open those little 
gray bundles, you should be very happy, 
for there is something beautiful inside.” 

The fairy stopped crying and looked at 
the bundle before her. She wondered if 
Bunny were right—if there really could be 
something nice in such a dirty-looking 
package. Certainly it would do no harm 
to find out what was hidden away in there. 
She opened her knife and cut into the 
bundle. 

“See!” cried Bunny. The fairy was so 
astonished she could say nothing. She 
could only stare at the tiny creature that 


BUNNY LEARNS MANY THINGS 


73 


crawled out of the bundle. It seemed very 
weak—possibly because it had been shut 
up inside so long. Two wet wings were 
folded tight against its body, but as Bunny 
and the fairy watched, these were dried by 
the warm sun. They unfolded slowly and 
began to wave back and forth in the breeze. 
They seemed to grow larger and larger, 
while bright spots appeared on them. Pres¬ 
ently the little creature lifted itself and 
floated away, making a gay bit of color in 
the garden. 

“A butterfly!” exclaimed the fairy. 

Bunny wrinkled up his funny nose and 
giggled. The little fairy that had pouted 
because she did not like the task given her, 
was now dashing gleefully from shrub to 
tree and back again to the shrubs, trying 
to open all the little gray bundles at once. 
When she passed near the place where 
Bunny sat watching, she paused long 
enough to say, “How dreadful it would 
have been if I had gone on pouting and 


74 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

left all this beauty shut up inside the ugly 
cases!” 

And Bunny agreed that it would have 
been very dreadful indeed. 


CHAPTER VII 


BUNNY GOES AGAIN ON A LONG 

JOURNEY 

S O many interesting things had been 
happening in the garden of the lit¬ 
tle lame Princess, that Bunny had 
forgotten about Billy Chickadee and his 
secret. And then Bunny again awoke to 
the patter of the rain outside. Robin 
hopped about the garden hunting for 
worms, and cheerfully insisted it was a fine 
day to be out. But Bunny refused to play 
with him. The sound of the rain reminded 
the little rabbit of another rainy morning 
when he had gone in search of Billy Chick¬ 
adee, and then he thought of the secret. 

He could not wait another minute after 
thinking of Billy and his secret, but started 
off in the rain. 


75 


76 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

“Where are you going?” Robin wanted 
to know. “You promised to play games 
with me.” 

“I have important business that compels 
me to take a long journey, but at noontime 
I will return and play with you.” 

Bunny never liked to travel when his 
stomach was empty, so he stopped at the 
raspberry patch and made a breakfast off 
the tender young shoots. He stopped also 
at Woodpecker’s dead tree, for he remem¬ 
bered this bird had a secret. He found the 
red-headed bird near the tree, and asked 
him to tell about the hole he had been dig¬ 
ging. 

“Oh, yes! come up and I will show you 
our secret,” offered Woodpecker. 

“But I can’t climb the tree.” 

“So you can’t. Dear me, what a shame.” 

Mrs. Woodpecker stuck her head out of 
the round hole, and she also said it was a 
shame Bunny could not see their secret. 


BUNNY GOES ON A LONG JOURNEY 77 

“But what is the secret?” Bunny asked 
again. 

“I suppose we shall have to tell him, but 
it is a shame that he will never know how 
beautiful they are.” 

“Please, what are they?” 

“Eggs,” said Woodpecker. 

“Six glossy white eggs,” added Mrs. 
Woodpecker, proudly. “If you could climb 
up to see them, I am sure you would think 
them much larger and prettier than the 
eggs of most birds.” 

“Oh,” cried Bunny, “now I know 
Chickadee’s secret. I must hurry and tell 
him I have guessed it.” 

Although the rabbit was in a great 
hurry, he could not pass the clover-patch 
without stopping for a nibble or two. It 
was one of his favorite feeding-places, and 
he was surprised and none too well pleased 
to see a great number of bumblebees 
buzzing about the patch. One buzzed past 


78 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

him, striking his nose as it settled on a 
clover blossom in front of him. 

“Look out!” warned Bunny. “You hit 
my nose.” 

“It isn’t much of a nose,” buzzed the bee. 
Indeed it wasn’t much of a nose, but it 
made Bunny angry to have the bee make 
fun of it. 

“It may not be much of a nose, but it is 
a better one than you have,” he said. 

“What would I do with a nose? I 
breathe through holes on either side of my 
back. I wouldn’t be bothered with a nose.” 

The bee finished dipping the honey from 
each of the little cups that made up the red 
blossom, and went on to the next. Bunny 
nibbled at a leaf, and, as he did so, another 
bee brushed his nose and then another. 

“Where did all of you come from?” 
cried Bunny. “Early this spring there was 
only one about, and she was much larger 
and better-mannered than any of you seem 
to be.” 


BUNNY GOES ON A LONG JOURNEY 79 

“She was the Queen Mother,” one of the 
bees explained. “Now that we are old 
enough, we gather the honey and thus al¬ 
low her to stay in the home.” 

Bunny did not care who gathered the 
honey if they were careful not to gather it 
from the blossom under his nose, and he 
crossly said so. But the sun was brightly 
shining by this time, and after a good meal 
Bunny was quite cheerful again. 

When he found Chickadee, the little 
bird said: “Well, why didn’t you come to 
see our secret? As busy as I was, I feared 
I should have to come after you, for soon 
our secret will fly away.” 

Bunny thought the little bird was teas¬ 
ing him, for of course birds’ eggs could 
not fly away. “I know what your secret 
is,” he said proudly. “You have a nest 
with eggs in it.” 

“That is no secret,” said Chickadee. 
“We had a nest full of eggs when you were 
here before. We wanted you to see our 


80 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

baby birds. They are such fine little birds 
—each one as handsome as myself.” 

Again Bunny had to confess that he 
could not climb a tree. 

“What a shame,” said Billy. “But wait 
a minute. I think the oldest one is ready to 
try his wings.” 

Billy flew to the nest, calling softly, and 
presently the rabbit saw a small head ap¬ 
pear above the edge. Billy continued to 
coax, and after a time the young bird stood 
on the edge of the nest, flapping his wings. 
He was a chubby little fellow, with a black 
cap like Billy’s. While he balanced himself 
there, Billy flew to get him an insect as a 
present. Bunny would also have been glad 
to reward his courage if he had known 
where to hunt for the proper insects. 

From his place on the ground he tried 
to persuade the little fellow to try his 
wings. Billy flew back and forth in front 
of him, to show him just how it was done. 
Still the little bird flapped his wings and 


BUNNY GOES ON A LONG JOURNEY 81 

clung tight to the nest. He looked down at 
the ground, and it must have seemed a long 
distance to fall, for he would turn again 
and again to the nest that sheltered his 
brothers and sisters, and decide not to 
make the attempt. Bunny thought he had 
given up all idea of learning to fly, when 
he suddenly left the nest and fluttered to 
the limb below. He clung tightly to it, flap¬ 
ping his wings to keep from falling, but 
after a time he was able to balance himself. 

Billy Chickadee was as proud of him as 
could be. He flew away to bring the young 
bird something nice to eat. Mrs. Chicka¬ 
dee also brought him a dainty morsel and 
warned him not to try too much flying at 
first. 

Bunny would have stayed until every 
little bird in the nest had learned to fly, but 
he noticed the sun was almost directly 
overhead, and he had promised Robin he 
would be back at noon to play games with 
him. Bunny always tried to keep a promise. 


82 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

That was why he said good-by to the chick¬ 
adee family and hurried homeward. He 
knew he would not have a moment to lose 
if he reached the garden on time. 

Perhaps it was because he was hurrying 
that he did not notice the wild grapevine 
lying in a loop upon the ground. Certainly 
he would not have put his left fore foot into 
it if he had noticed it. His strong hind feet 
tried to send him forward in another leap, 
but the vine pulled tight around his leg 
and poor Bunny fell on his nose. Not 
knowing what tripped him, he struck out 
in every direction, pulling the loop even 
tighter. The more he struggled the firmer 
it held him and the more frightened poor 
Bunny Puffball became. Not once did he 
stop long enough to see what held him. He 
pulled and he tugged. He leaped first one 
way and then another, but all this did no 
good. 

Noontime came, and down in the gar¬ 
den Robin waited uneasily. “Where can 


BUNNY GOES ON A LONG JOURNEY 83 

Bunny be? He promised to return at noon 
and play with me.” 

“He has forgotten,” said old Frog, in 
the pool. 



Poor Bunny fell on his nose. 


But Robin knew Bunny would not for¬ 
get. He said to Bluebird, “I am afraid 
something has happened to him.” 

“Something must have happened,” 
agreed Bluebird. “Bunny always keeps his 




84 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

word, and he would be here if he could get 
here.” 

And the bird friends decided to go in 
search of him. 

That is how it happened that poor 
Bunny, worn out with his struggles, heard 
the welcome voices of the birds calling to 
him. 

“Oh, here I am,” he panted. “I am 
caught in a trap and cannot get away.” 

“Why,” said Robin, “that is not a trap. 
It is only a grapevine wrapped around 
your foot.” 

Bunny looked and found it was so. In¬ 
stead of pulling away from it, he should 
have gone closer and allowed it to loosen. 

“Dearie me, how foolish I am. If I had 
stopped to think a minute, I should have 
seen what it was and cut the vine with my 
teeth. How foolish, how very foolish I 
have been.” 

He soon had his foot free, and they all 
started home again. “We knew something 


BUNNY GOES ON A LONG JOURNEY 85 

had happened to you or you would have 
kept your promise,” said Robin. 

“Is that why you came—because I have 
always tried to keep my word?” asked 
Bunny. The birds said that was what made 
them think something was wrong. “Then,” 
said Bunny, “I will be even more careful 
to keep a promise; I may need help again 
sometime.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE LITTLE OLD MAN AND THE 
APPLE-TREE 

HE Apple-blossom fairy was wor¬ 



ried—dreadfully worried. And 
because she was worried she flew 


straight to the nursery to find the Fairy 
Grandmother. 

“What shall I do, oh, what shall I do, 
Fairy Grandmother? My prettiest apple- 
tree is growing proud and haughty. Only 
this morning I heard him say, ‘I am the 
prettiest tree in the orchard.’ 

“A bee came along and asked him, most 
politely, for honey. 

“ ‘Go away,’ said the proud tree; ‘you 
might shake off some of my pretty pink- 
and-white petals. Then I should no longer 
be the prettiest tree in the orchard.’ ” 


86 



THE OLD MAH AND THE APPLE-TREE 87 

“Didn’t the tree know that the bee 
brought pollen to help the apple-blossoms 
form fruit?” asked the Fairy Grand¬ 
mother. 

“I tried to tell him,” the Apple-blossom 
fairy replied, “but he would not listen. Oh, 
what shall I do?” 

The Fairy Grandmother thought for a 
time, and then she whispered something in 
little Apple-blossom’s ear. 

“The very thing!” cried that little fairy. 

Not long after that the proud apple-tree 
was surprised to see a queer little old man 
standing before him. The little old man 
was so crooked and twisted that he looked 
much like an old worn-out apple-tree. One 
of his arms was gone, his face was twisted, 
and his back was bent nearly double. 

“Who are you, and what do you want 
here?” sharply demanded the tree. The old 
man did not answer, but continued to stare 
at the tree, bright with many blossoms. 
While he stood there a pair of orioles came 


88 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

to the tree, seeking a place to hang their 
nest. 

“If you will allow us to build here, we 
will keep away the worms and the cater¬ 
pillars that harm you. We will also destroy 
the beetles and the grasshoppers.” 

“I don’t want you here,” cried the tree. 
“You might shake off some of my blos¬ 
soms.” 

The orioles left immediately, and then 
the tree noticed that the little old man was 
nodding his head with satisfaction. 

“I did not think it could be possible, for 
you are such a handsome fellow. But ’tis 
so—’tis so. You will be as I am.” 

“What do you mean?” cried the tree, 
for he was very angry. 

Just at that moment a woodpecker flew 
to the largest limb and began to tap upon 
it. 

“Go away; I don’t want you to tap on 
my branches. You might spoil my bark.” 

“But there is a black-headed borer in 


THE OLD MAH AND THE APPLE-TREE 89 

this branch,” said the woodpecker. “Surely 
you want me to get it out for you.” 

“No, no!” said the tree. He would not 
allow the woodpecker to get the borer with 
his long, sharp bill, so the pretty red, black, 
and white bird went away. 

“Ha, ha!” laughed the little old man in 
a strange, squeaky voice. “That is right, 
let the borer alone. It will tunnel through 
the branch, and then a wind will come 
along and break off the branch. Ha, ha! 
That’s how I lost my arm. Indeed, we are 
brothers.” 

“What do you mean?” asked the tree, 
now very much frightened. 

“A few more worms to eat at your heart, 
a few more insects to sting your branches 
and cause them to wither and twist, then 
you will be as I am.” 

The strong young apple-tree gazed 
down at the old man, who looked so like 
a rotten old tree-trunk, and shuddered at 
the thoughts that came to him. 



y* • -.v^' 1 — ^ v." . e ' 




**4 


* ^ 

.Z'LV 




e»r 



/ 


“YOU WILL BE AS I AM.” 
90 







THE OLD MAN AND THE APPLE-TREE 91 

“Oh, here comes a bag-worm hungry 
for leaves. Ha, ha! It’s a good thing you 
sent those birds about their business; they 
would have made a meal of the worm.” 

The apple-tree looked anxiously around. 
He didn’t want the worm to eat his leaves. 
He didn’t want to be like the gnarled and 
twisted old man. He made up his mind he 
wouldn’t be. Somehow he must get the 
birds back to help him. 

A huge black-and-yellow spider crawled 
up to his branches. She asked, most po¬ 
litely, if she might live there and weave 
her web. 

“I will catch the codling moth when it 
comes to lay its eggs in your blossom; then 
there will be no worms in your apples,” 
promised the spider. 

“You may stay, and I am most grateful 
for your aid,” replied the tree. 

“Ho, ho! What is this?” cried the little 
old man. “Has the worm in your branch 
made you ill, that you say such a foolish 


92 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

thing? Send the spider away; you want 
none of her untidy webs.” 

But the tree paid no attention to the old 
man. He called to a bee that was passing 
and said: ‘‘Won’t you please take some of 
my honey? And after you have had all you 
wish, will you please find the Apple- 
blossom fairy and tell her I need her?” 

When the little old man heard that, he 
did a very strange thing. He hobbled 
along until he was out of sight, then he 
threw his stick away and ran quite nimbly 
to the Fairy nursery. The big bumble-bee 
on guard at the entrance admitted him 
without a question, and the Fairy Grand¬ 
mother greeted him with a laugh. 

“Well, did the plan work?” she asked. 
Then she touched the little old man with 
her wand, and in his place there stood the 
dainty little Apple-blossom fairy. 

“Indeed it did, Grandmother, and I am 
most grateful for your help. I am sure my 


THE OLD MAN AND THE APPLE-TREE 93 

beautiful apple-tree will never be proud 
and selfish again.” 

Back to the apple-tree hurried the little 
fairy. “Did you send for me?” she asked. 

“Oh, yes, I need help badly. I have an 
enemy striking at my heart. Will you ask 
the woodpecker to come back? Tell him I 
am very sorry I was rude. And will you 
ask the orioles to build their nest here? I 
will rock their babies ever so gently, and 
be most grateful for their protection.” 

“Indeed, I will,” answered the Apple- 
blossom fairy. And as she hurried away to 
find the birds, she laughed softly to herself. 


CHAPTER IX 


THE BOASTFUL STRANGER 

T HE little fairy, Fee-fee, was fol¬ 
lowing a baby robin about the 
garden and marveling at his 
fondness for food. She shuddered every 
time the youngster opened his great yel¬ 
low-bordered mouth, she was so afraid 
she might fall in. Yet she trailed after the 
speckled fellow as he hopped about and 
tried his wings. 

“Nineteen, twenty,” counted Fee-fee, as 
each one of his parents brought him a nice 
worm. She had meant to count every wild 
strawberry and other bit of food that had 
gone into his mouth that morning. But she 
had never learned to count so high, and 
had to give it up. 

She went over to the tall poplars at the 


94 


THE BOASTFUL STRANGER 95 

back of the garden where a little vireo was 
weaving a basket nest. She found a strange 
bird sitting on a limb near-by, watching 
the little bird at her work. This stranger 
had a brown head and glossy greenish- 
black feathers. A dull gray bird, evidently 
his mate, sat beside him. The gray bird 
made never a sound, but the dark stranger 
talked unceasingly in a squeaky voice, 
spreading his wings and tail as he did so. 

“Why do you work so hard over your 
nest? If you spent more time preening 
your feathers, you would look much bet¬ 
ter. My coat shines more than any other 
bird’s,” boasted the stranger, when the 
weaver’s mate brought the silky fibers of 
the birch tree for her weaving. 

The vireo winked his red eye under its 
broad band of white and said to the little 
fairy, Fee-fee, “Has our ruby-throated 
humming-bird come back from the south? 
I should like the stranger to see the pretty 
humming-bird’s jeweled coat.” 


96 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

For a moment the stranger was quiet, 
for he knew the coat of the smallest bird 
sparkled more than his. Fee-fee did not 
like this boasting fellow, but she was inter¬ 
ested in him. “Why are you always spread¬ 
ing your tail when you talk?” she asked. 

“To make it strong. My tail is stronger 
than any other bird’s.” 

“Can you stand on it?” asked Fee-fee, 
pointing to the woodpecker who was 

guarding his nest near-by. His feet were 

/ 

tightly fastened in the trunk of the old tree 
where he made his home, but he was brac¬ 
ing himself with his tail. It looked as 
though he was sitting on it. While his mate 
was getting her breakfast of grubs and in¬ 
sects, he was watching the six glossy white 
eggs that lay in the sawdust at the bottom 
of the cavity he had chiseled out. 

“The woodpecker thinks he has a long 
tongue,” scoffed the stranger, “but I have 
the longest tongue ever seen.” 

Now Fee-fee felt sure his tongue could 


THE BOASTFUL STRANGER 


97 


not be longer than the woodpecker’s or the 
flicker’s, for their bills were longer, but 
she wanted to surprise this boastful stran¬ 
ger. She called to a swallow-tailed butter¬ 
fly passing by, and asked him to show the 
stranger his tongue. The butterfly set¬ 
tled on a branch and began to uncoil 
his tongue—one inch—an inch and a 
half—almost two inches! The stranger 
cried out in amazement. “Where do you 
keep all that tongue?” he wanted to 
know. And the butterfly showed him how 
he could coil his tongue up like the tiny 
spring of a watch. 

“You see, the butterfly likes to get the 
honey from the deep flowers like the 
honeysuckle.” 

She thought this would quiet the rude 
fellow, but it did not, so she left him there 
and went out into the woods in search of 
the hermit, Mrs. Whippoorwill. She had 
heard that this lonely little lady bird was 
given to raking a few twigs together on 


98 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

the ground and leaving her white eggs, 
marked with bits of brown, gray, and lilac, 
in this sort of a makeshift. She wanted to 
explain to her that a real nest high in a tree 
would be much safer. This was the Bird 
fairy’s busiest time, and Fee-fee was trying 
to help. It was some time before she found 
the whippoorwill, for the little mottled 
bird lay upon a limb, fast asleep. She 
looked so much like the limb itself that 
Fee-fee almost passed her by. Perhaps it 
was just as well, for the brown bird had 
been out all night catching moths, and was 
so sleepy that Fee-fee couldn’t get her to 
make any promises. 

When the little fairy got back to the gar¬ 
den she found it in an uproar. 

“I was gone only a short time,” the poor 
little vireo kept repeating. “I only went 
for a few blades of grass to line my 
nest.” 

“I am not at all surprised,” declared the 
woodpecker. “When I heard all that boast- 


THE BOASTFUL STRANGER 


99 


ing, I knew something was wrong with 
those strange birds.” 

“What a shame to impose on little Mrs. 
Vireo!” The Bluebird lady had left her 
pale bluish eggs in the apple-tree to see 
what all the excitement was about. Mrs. 
Oriole from her swinging nest in the same 
tree kept repeating, “What is wrong? 
What is it? What is wrong? What is it?” 

The little vireo stood on the edge of her 
nest and gazed in horror at the large egg 
almost covering the bottom of it. Fee-fee 
took a peep and saw that the gray, silent 
bird with the boasting stranger had put her 
egg into the nest when the little vireo was 
away. 

“What shall I do? What shall I do? If I 
hatch this egg with mine, this bird will be 
so large it will crowd my babies from the 
nest, and it will get all the food we bring to 
them.” 

“Throw the egg out,” suggested the 
woodpecker. But a protest went up at this 


IOO GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

suggestion. From this egg would come a 
helpless baby bird, and it was not the little 
bird’s fault that it had been deserted and 



“ The little lame Princess will be interested. ” 


left for another to raise. There were many 
suggestions, but none of them was satis¬ 
factory until Mrs. Robin came quietly for¬ 
ward and offered her solution. 






THE BOASTFUL STRANGER 


IOI 


“Let this egg be taken to my nest and I 
will hatch it with my next brood. My first 
babies are now large enough to take care 
of themselves. The little lame Princess will 
be interested in. seeing this egg with my 
greenish-blue ones, and my robins are al¬ 
ways so husky when hatched that this little 
stranger cannot harm them.” 

A cheer went up for the generous- 
hearted robin, and the Bird fairy, who had 
come at the first suggestion of trouble, 
thanked her for her kindness. Fee-fee and 
the Bird fairy carried the egg very care¬ 
fully to the tree by the little Princess’ 
window. It was here the robins had built 
their nest. And when they saw how much 
fun it was for the little Princess to look 
into it and watch them feed their babies, 
they went on using the same nest year after 
year. Each season they patched up the 
holes in it with grasses or bits of string that 
the Princess laid upon her window-sill for 
them, and gave it a new mud lining. 


102 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

The Bird fairy was much concerned 
about the action of the boastful stranger. 
She searched through the garden, deter¬ 
mined to find him. She searched the woods, 
and finally came upon him, riding grandly 
about the pasture upon the back of a pa¬ 
tient cow. 

“I came to advise you to build a nest of 
your own and not impose upon others,” 
said the fairy. 

“I am not a builder,” grandly spoke the 
bird. 

“Then the next time you set yourself to 
boasting be sure to mention the fact that 
you are the laziest bird in the country. But 
I would advise you to build a nest before 
you lose the respect of the entire neighbor¬ 
hood.” 

The fairy returned to the garden to tell 
the excited little vireo that the boastful 
stranger was the cowbird. “But ‘Lazybird’ 
would be a better name for him. I hope he 
takes my advice about the nest.” 


CHAPTER X 


A FAIRY GIVES ADVICE 

I T was May time in the garden of the 
little lame Princess, and the buds of 
the shagbark-hickory tree that grew 
just beyond the wall were opening like 
great flowers. As the days grew longer and 
warmer, some of the fairies who helped the 
Fairy Grandmother in the nursery, be¬ 
came lazy. So, when she came to the nurs¬ 
ery one morning, she was not greatly sur¬ 
prised to find all the nurses sleeping as 
soundly as the fairy babies. 

She called the Wake-up fairy, who had 
finished waking the garden flowers, and 
asked her to rouse them. But the nurses 
yawned three or four big yawns and went 
to sleep again. 

“They may have the spring fever,” said 

103 


104 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

Fairy Grandmother. “I will make a little 
tea from the corky bark of the sassafras 
roots. It will do them much good.” 

But before she had taken many steps to¬ 
wards her cupboard she noticed a yellow¬ 
ish dust on the floor. “Hoity-toity, what is 
this! That careless Sandman’s fairy must 
have been around here looking for more 
poppy dust.” 

“He was,” said Wake-up fairy. “I met 
him just outside the door. He said the 
morning-glories would soon be blooming, 
and if he was to put them to sleep in the 
mornings, with so many others to put to 
sleep at night, he would need more poppy 
dust.” 

“Ah, now I know why the nurses are so 
sleepy; they breathed some of the dust that 
he spilled. Never mind, you will soon be 
able to wake them.” 

When Fairy Grandmother had peeped 
into her medicine cupboard she ex¬ 
claimed, “Dear me, the careless fellow has 


A FAIRY GIVES ADVICE 


i os 


spilled almost all of his dust. I must visit 
the poppy beds and see when we can get 
more of the yellowish-brown milk we dry 
to make our sleeping dust. It will be very 
serious if our supply fails.” 

The Fairy Grandmother hurried away, 
leaving Wake-up fairy in charge until she 
could wake the nurses. Feeling very im¬ 
portant, this little fairy swept up the poppy 
dust from the floor. It did not make her 
sleepy, for she was the Wake-up fairy. She 
was wondering what to do next when the 
Butterfly fairy came rushing in with a sick 
butterfly. 

“Where is Fairy Grandmother? Oh, 
where are the nurses? I found this poor 
butterfly on the poison-ivy vine in the 
woods, and I am afraid it has been poi¬ 
soned.” 

“I am in charge here,” Wake-up fairy 
proudly told her. She examined the butter¬ 
fly and noticed the tiny spots all over the 
wings. 


106 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

“It has the measles, I think, and you 
must take it away so the fairy babies will 
not catch the disease. Make a soft bed for 
it out under the May-apple, then I will 
bring some hot red-pepper tea to make it 
break out well.” 

Since the Butterfly fairy had discovered 
what was hidden away in the dull-gray 
bundles she had been told to open, she had 
joyously kept at her task. Under the may- 
apple she made a soft mushroom bed for 
the sick butterfly, and Wake-up fairy 
brought the red-pepper tea. They had 
given the butterfly only one drop when the 
Pussy-willow fairy came for help. 

That morning she had seen Bunny Puff¬ 
ball for the first time. Because he was soft 
and round like a large pussy-willow she 
adopted him and whispered all manner of 
fairy secrets into his ear. They were hav¬ 
ing their first romp together when the acci¬ 
dent happened that sent the Pussy-willow 


A FAIRY GIVES ADVICE 


107 


fairy hurrying to the nursery. Bunny had 
fallen on his soft little nose and mashed it 
almost flat. 

“I am sure he needs a poultice,” said 
Wake-up fairy, when she had learned of 
the accident. “I would advise an onion 
poultice.” 

But Pussy-willow fairy declared the 
Fairy Grandmother had put an onion 
poultice on her lungs when she fell into 
the pool and had pneumonia. “Bunny’s 
poor nose couldn’t have pneumonia,” she 
insisted. This was certainly true, so Wake- 
up fairy prepared a poultice of wild- 
mustard seed and advised Pussy-willow 
fairy to use it on Bunny’s bruised nose. 
Poor Bunny! Naughty, proud Wake-up 
fairy! 

In spite of her willingness to give ad¬ 
vice, the little fairy began to wish she knew 
more about the medicines she was giving 
out. She went to the cupboard and com- 


108 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

menced to read the labels on the bottles and 
jars. She saw that tansy and boneset were 
both labeled “Bitter Tonic,” and wondered 
what the words meant. She decided boneset 
would be the very thing for any one who 
had a broken bone, and wondered if it 
might have been better for Bunny’s nose 
than the mustard. The blackberry cordial 
tasted very good, she knew, and she was 
just about to take a little of it when the Bird 
fairy flew in all a-flutter. 

“Quick, where is Fairy Grandmother? 
The catbird has a sore throat, and I must 
have medicine for him at once. He is too 
hoarse to sing any of his lovely tunes, and 
may grow worse.” 

“I will give you some medicine,” said 
Wake-up fairy. 

She looked at the bottle labeled, “Fox¬ 
glove Digitalis—Heart Stimulant.” She 
did not believe that would help the cat¬ 
bird’s throat, so she looked until she saw 
the word “Catnip.” That word seemed to 


A FAIRY GIVES ADVICE 


log 


fit exactly. And feeling very proud of her¬ 
self, she sent the Bird fairy away with cat¬ 
nip tea. 

A little later the fairy Fee-fee brought in 
a bumblebee whose buzzing had given 
him a headache. Now the Wake-up fairy 
had once seen the Fairy Grandmother 
burn mullein leaves and let a little bee 
breathe the smoke. She prepared to do the 
same, not knowing that the Fairy Grand¬ 
mother had been doctoring the other bee 
for asthma, and that the fumes from the 
burning mullein leaves had made his 
breathing easier. 

If Fairy Grandmother had not returned 
to the nursery just then, there is no doubt 
that this little bee’s headache would have 
been much worse. But she rescued him, 
and told Fee-fee to take him to the moss 
bed by the brooklet and let the spray from 
the tiny falls cool his poor head. Then she 
turned to Wake-up fairy. “You should not 
give advice unless you are sure you are 


110 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 


right,” she said. “Did you try again to 
wake the nurses? They know about the 
different medicines.” 

Wake-up fairy had forgotten about the 



The butterfly on the soft mushroom bed. 

sleeping baby fairies and their nurses, but 
now she hurried about, waking them. As 
she went from one tiny cot to another she 
wondered how the poor butterfly was get¬ 
ting along. She told Fairy Grandmother 
about the sick butterfly, the catbird’s sore 

I 








A FAIRY GIVES ADVICE 


111 


throat, and poor Bunny’s nose, and begged 
her to go to them. 

They found the butterfly on the soft 
mushroom bed, with its long tongue un¬ 
coiled. It looked like a very thin wire. The 
Butterfly fairy sitting beside it hastened to 
explain, “I didn’t give the butterfly any 
more of the red-pepper tea, for that one 
drop burned his tongue all the way along 
it.” 

“Dearie me, I’m glad you didn’t,” said 
Fairy Grandmother. “I’ll fix this little but¬ 
terfly up with a tonic. He is only weak 
from growing his beautiful spots.” 

Fairy Grandmother looked very stern 
when she hurried away to find the bruised 
rabbit, with the anxious Wake-up fairy fol¬ 
lowing close behind. When they neared 
the wall under which Bunny had his home, 
they heard a sound like the mewing of a 
cat. 

“How strange!” said Fairy Grand¬ 
mother. “The Princess never allows her 


112 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

cat to come into the garden because the 
birds are there. But I certainly hear one.” 

They looked carefully all about the 
ground. In the trees the birds were flut¬ 
tering about in alarm. “Meow, meow, 
meow!” came the cry again. On top of the 
wall sat a catbird who seemed to be enjoy¬ 
ing himself very much. He was not at all 
alarmed. Fairy Grandmother watched him 
closely and discovered that he was the one 
who was making the sound, and not the 
cat. 

“How do you suppose he learned to do 
it?” she asked, in astonishment. Wake-up 
fairy hung her head in shame. “He had a 
sore throat and I gave him cat—catnip tea. 
Could—do you suppose that—could that 
have-” 

The Fairy Grandmother began to 
laugh, and she laughed until her spectacles 
fell off. “Well, there’s no harm done,” said 
she, when she was able to stop laughing 
for a moment. “He will tease the other 





A FAIRY GIVES ADVICE 113 

birds for a time, and then they will see his 
little joke. It doesn’t matter.” 

She sent the catbird to the nursery for 
some hoarhound. 

“That will heal his throat so he can sing 
again, but I doubt if he ever forgets the 
new call he is having so much fun with.” 

Poor Bunny Puffball was not having so 
much fun, they found. The mustard plas¬ 
ter burned him so that the Pussy-willow 
fairy had to sit beside him and tell him 
funny stories to keep him from crying. 
Fairy Grandmother looked serious. 

“If a little witch-hazel juice had been 
put on his poor bruised nose, it would now 
be much better. But I fear it is worse.” 

The plaster had to be taken off, and with 
it came the end of poor Bunny’s nose. He 
had only a little stub of a nose left. 

“Oh, oh!” The little Wake-up fairy 
burst out crying. “I never, never will give 
ad—advice again unless I—I know what I 
am doing,” she sobbed. 



114 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

But Bunny was not so unhappy. “Any¬ 
thing is better than a mustard plaster,” he 
declared, “and I think I shall like a short 
nose better, anyway; it will match my tail.” 


CHAPTER XI 


WHEN THE SKY AND EARTH MET 


O NE evening Bunny saw Cricket 
hurrying towards the castle and 
called to him. “Do you still go 
back to the castle for your meals when 
there is food all about you? I should think 
you would be ashamed of yourself.” 

Cricket drew himself up proudly. “I do 
not allow the little lame Princess to give 
me food and drink during the summer¬ 
time. I would much rather live in the open. 
However, I try to get back at the story 
hour. The nurse formed the very fine habit 
of telling the Princess and myself a story at 
twilight, and both she and the Princess 
would be disappointed if I did not return 

for a time each evening.” 

115 


n6 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

The proud fellow hurried on, leaving 
Bunny very much surprised. 

“How strange!” he murmured. In spite 
of the cricket’s boasting Bunny did not 
think the Princess would feel badly if the 
black, shining fellow were not in his place 
on the hearth at the story hour. He remem¬ 
bered having crept close to the wall be¬ 
neath one of the nine windows, and having 
heard the story of the Easter Lily. Now he 
wished with all his heart he could hear an¬ 
other. Why couldn’t he? There had been 
only one window partly open at that time, 
yet his keen ears had heard every word; 
now all the windows would be open. 

That is how it happened that the nurse 
told the story of the meeting of the sky and 
the earth, not only to the Princess and the 
cricket on the hearth, but also to a little 
rabbit that nestled down beneath one of the 
nine windows. 

“In the long ago,” said she, “the earth 
lay bare and brown under the cold, gray 


WHEN THE SKY AND EARTH MET 117 

sky. There were no bright colors any¬ 
where. But, after a time, the sky grew tired 
of dull colors. She put the sun to drawing 
water from the lakes and rivers of the 
earth, and with this water she washed her¬ 
self clean. Then the water was returned to 
the earth as rain. The dull gray of the sky 
had all disappeared, and in its place there 
was a soft blue color, with white clouds 
floating here and there. 

“The earth noticed the change in the 
sky, and reached up for a bit of fleecy 
white cloud. From the cloud wisps she was 
able to catch, she made little snowdrops 
with which to decorate her crown. Pleased 
with what she had done, the earth mixed 
the yellow sunshine with the blue of the 
sky, and made a bright-green mantle with 
which she covered her plains and moun¬ 
tains. 

“The earth was now much more beauti¬ 
ful, but the sky was not to be outdone. 
Once more the sky washed her floor until 


118 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

the blue was clean and fresh; then she 
added a flaming sunset of orange and red. 

“The great beauty of the sunset amazed 
the earth, and she lost no time in adding 
the sunset colors to her own beauty. Of the 
sunset orange, she made a carpet of dande¬ 
lions. With the sunset red, she mixed the 
blue of the sky, and lo! there were the vio¬ 
lets peeping from the cool places of the 
woodland. Nor did she stop there in her 
race for beauty. Of the sunset red, she 
made the wild poppies and set them nod¬ 
ding in the fields. From the gold of the 
sunlight, she made the buttercups; from 
the morning sky, she made forget-me- 
nots; from the indigo blue of the twilight 
hour, she fashioned the blue larkspur. 

“The sky was not happy when she saw so 
much beauty upon the earth. Alas, no! 
Her only thought was to outdo the earth 
in loveliness. She took the color of the vio¬ 
lets, the indigo of the larkspur, the blue of 
the forget-me-nots, the green of the hills 


WHEN THE SKY AND EARTH MET 


119 

and plains, the yellow of the buttercups, 
the orange of the dandelions, and the red 
of the poppies. All these colors she strung 



Strung together in a rainbow ribbon. 

together in a great rainbow ribbon, and 
laid it across a dark cloud-mop she had 
used in washing her floors. The dark cloud 
behind the rainbow ribbon brought out the 




















120 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

bright colors, and the sky was well pleased 
with her work. She looked down into the 
mirror lakes to see how beautiful the rain¬ 
bow really was. The sky had always used 
the lakes for a looking-glass; without them 
she could never have told whether her 
clouds and stars were placed correctly or 
not. 

“The earth was very angry when she 
saw the rainbow, for she knew she could 
make nothing more beautiful. 

“ ‘You have taken the colors of my flow¬ 
ers,’ she angrily told the sky. 

“ ‘You took them from me first,’ accused 
the sky. 

“ ‘Indeed! Where is your green? Where 
is your violet?’ The earth was becoming 
more angry every moment and rumbling 
much like an earthquake. 

“ ‘You cannot use my lakes as mirrors,’ 
screamed the earth. ‘You cannot have any 
more water for washing your floors.’ 

“Then the sky became very angry. ‘Very 


WHEN THE SKY AND EARTH MET 121 

well,’ she thundered, ‘you cannot have any 
more sunshine or any more rain.’ 

“So she spread over the floor the thick 
cloud she had used as a mop. Not a bit of 
sunshine could peep through. No more 
sunshine came upon the earth. No more 
rain fell, since the sky no longer washed 
her floors. As the days went by, the flowers 
drooped their heads with thirst. The little 
seeds, waiting to sprout, begged for rain 
and sunshine. The earth was very un¬ 
happy. 

“The sky was also unhappy. It was hard 
to get along without the use of the lake mir¬ 
rors. Her stars and clouds were getting all 
mixed up, and she could not tell where to 
hang the Big Dipper. Really it was dread¬ 
ful! And with all the sunshine shut up 
above the clouds it was much too warm to 
be comfortable. 

“ ‘How foolish!’ said the sky one day. 
‘How foolish we are to quarrel. We can¬ 
not get along without each other.’ 


122 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

“She raised the edge of the dark cloud 
and sent a tiny sunbeam down with a mes¬ 
sage. This was the message: ‘I am sorry. 
Let us be friends.’ 

“At the same moment the earth sent a 
bluebird to tell the sky she was sorry she 
had been cross. Then the sky and the earth 
met at all four corners of the heavens in a 
friendly embrace, promising to help each 
other always and never quarrel again. The 
sky sent her sun to warm the earth. The 
earth gave water to the sky, that she might 
wash her floor clean. The water was sent 
back as rain to the thirsty flowers. 

“This was long, long ago, but still you 
see them meeting at what we call the hori¬ 
zon, and they meet with the clasp of 
friendship.” 


CHAPTER XII 


THE GRAND PRIZE 

Y ES,” said the Fairy Grand¬ 
mother, “the more you give 
away, my dear Fee-fee, the 
more you have.” 

The little fairy nodded brightly and ran 
away to play. 

“Of course,” thought she, “Fairy 
Grandmother has lived many a year and 
is very wise, but I don’t see how you can 
have more when you give what you have 
away.” 

And little Fee-fee never did see it until 
she was large enough to tend a flower gar¬ 
den. Oh, yes, every little flower fairy takes 
care of her own little patch of flowers, just 
as a child takes care of his own little cor¬ 
ner in his mother’s flower garden. The 


12.1 


124 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

woodland fairies took care of the wild 
flowers. Who but the fairies could take 
care of the flowers in the deep, deep 
woods? 

Fee-fee had a garden of daisies, and 
every morning very early and every eve¬ 
ning very late she visited her flowers. She 
fed them dewdrops and supported the long 
stems when the wind blew strong. If the 
rain beat them down when she was away, 
she always straightened them up again. 
Often she talked to the little daisy plants. 

“You must have large, beautiful blos¬ 
soms,” she would tell them, “for the Fairy 
Queen is going to give a grand prize to the 
best fairy gardener. Won’t you help me 
win that prize?” 

And the little daisy plants did their very 
best. Each one put forth a strong blossom- 
stalk, and in a few days every stalk showed 
a bud at the tip end. The buds grew larger 
and larger. 


THE GRAND PRIZE 


125 


“Oh, oh!” cried Fee-fee; “you will 
surely win the prize!” 

One day the buds showed a bit of white, 
and then, one by one, the long white petals 
unfolded and showed the daisies’ golden 
hearts. Fee-fee flitted from one blossom to 
another, patting them lovingly. 

“Oh, you beautiful, beautiful things!” 
she cried. “If only the little lame Princess 
could see how lovely you are!” 

She hesitated. “Surely I can spare the 
little Princess one blossom,” she thought, 
“since she cannot come to the woods.” 

Very carefully she broke the stem of a 
large blossom and started gayly off. But 
on the way she met the Butterfly fairy, who 
was hunting a flower for a thirsty butterfly, 
and offered her the blossom. 

“I will run back and get another for the 
little Princess,” she said, as she handed the 
daisy to the Butterfly fairy, who thankfully 
accepted the gift. Then little Fee-fee 


126 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

picked a second blossom. As she did so the 
little Gold-dust fairy came by, on her way 
to the fairy ring among the clovers. 

“How I wish I might have a golden- 
hearted flower to use in my dance,” she 
sighed. “You may have one of mine,” said 
little Fee-fee. It made her quite happy to 
see the Gold-dust fairy dance away with 
it. Then she carried a blossom to the castle 
and gave it to a little fairy who looks after 
the little lame Princess. She decided that 
the Fairy Grandmother should have one, 
too. Soon the Fairy Grandmother had a 
blossom, and so did old Mrs. Bumblebee. 
Fee-fee’s flowers appeared on the window¬ 
sill of the fairy nursery, and one brightened 
the dressing-table of the Fairy Queen her¬ 
self. Soon there was not a flower left in 
Fee-fee’s little garden. 

“I have lost the prize,” she said, “but my 
blossoms make folks happy.” 

The sturdy daisy plants looked rather 
forlorn; there was not one yellow-and- 


THE GRAND PRIZE 


127 


white blossom among them. Fee-fee came 
no more to her little garden. 

“She has pulled all our blossoms,’’ com¬ 
plained one of the plants. 

“But she gave them away to make others 
happy,” said another. 

“That is so, and she lost the grand prize 
by doing it,” declared a third sturdy plant. 
“But our roots are strong, because she 
tended us so carefully, and there is yet 
time. Suppose we surprise her! What do 
you say?” 

“We will! We will!” chorused the daisy 
plants. 

The day came for the awarding of the 
grand prize. All the fairies met at the 
Queen’s court, to see who would be pro¬ 
claimed the best fairy gardener. The 
Queen sat upon her throne made of this¬ 
tledown and cobwebs. And when the rows 
and rows of fairies seated on the grass be¬ 
came quiet, she arose and showed them 
the grand prize. What do you think it was? 


128 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

It was a tiny fairy sleeping-garment, as 
light as the clouds but as warm as the 
bloom of the peach. Any little flower fairy 
would have been glad to have such a won¬ 
derful robe all ready when the fall came 
and it was time to go to sleep. Such a gar¬ 
ment would certainly keep her warm until 
spring, and in it she would be sure to 
dream wonderful fairy dreams. 

“The grand prize,” said the Queen— 
every one was listening intently—“the 
grand prize for the prettiest flower garden 
goes to fairy Fee-fee.” 

“To me?” gasped Fee-fee, taken by sur¬ 
prise. “Why, I pulled my blossoms! I have 
none now.” 

“Have you seen your garden lately?” 
the Queen inquired. 

Fee-fee admitted she had not, for she had 
thought her work there was finished. But 
as soon as the grand prize was clasped 
tightly in her tiny arms, she flew away to 
see her garden. Quite out of breath from 


THE GRAND PRIZE 


129 


hurrying, she parted the bushes that bor¬ 
dered the daisy clump and stared at the 
flowers in wonder. 

“O me! O my!” Every one of those little 
plants had put out three or four new blos¬ 
soms, and her garden was a mass of gold 
and white. Fee-fee hugged the prize to her 
and danced with delight. 

“O me! O my! You darling flowers!” 
Then she stopped, struck by a sudden 
thought. “It is just as the Fairy Grand¬ 
mother said,” she told her flowers, “the 
more you give away, the more you have.” 


























CHAPTER XIII 


A HEART OF GOLD 


T HE little fairy, Fee-fee, loved to 
play in the woods, and often she 
went to the garden to play with 
the garden fairies. But sometimes she left 
the sunshiny and shadowy places and went 
into the deep, dark forest. Every day a 
young wood-cutter worked in the dark 
woods, cutting the fagots which he sold 
to buy food. He was only a lad, but he 
must work hard, for he was the oldest of 
five hungry boys, and his widowed mother 
had been ill a long time. Fee-fee often 
watched him at work, and wished she 
could help him, but the big sticks he must 
carry were far too heavy for her to move. 

One day she found him very tired and 
very, very unhappy. The trees were so 


132 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

thick in this part of the woods that the sun 
could never peep through the foliage. But 
the rain could get through, and it kept the 
ground wet and muddy. As the lad waded 
about in the mud and the mire he cried 
out: “Ah me, life is not worth the living! 
There is nothing beautiful in the whole, 
wide world!” 

Little fairy Fee-fee was frightened. “It 
will never do to let him believe that,” she 
thought. “Perhaps I had better speak to 
him.” 

She flew down and settled herself on his 
coat-sleeve. Then she made herself visible 
to mortal eye. 

“You must not think such things!” she 
cried in a silvery voice. “There are many 
beautiful things in the world.” 

The lad looked all around before he 
caught sight of her perched upon his 
sleeve. Then he saw the tiny creature, no 
larger than a butterfly, and his eyes opened 
wide in amazement. Her golden hair 


A HEART OF GOLD 


133 


looked as soft and fine as a cobweb, her 
eyes shone like tiny stars, and all about her 
floated a thin drapery that resembled a rosy 
mist. 



“YOU MUST NOT THINK SUCH THINGS!” 

“Indeed, you are beautiful, but I had not 
seen you,” said the lad. 

“You were not looking for beauty,” Fee- 
fee replied, “or you would have seen that 


134 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

pure-white water-lily growing there in the 
pool. It came from the mud and the slime, 
yet it managed to keep itself pure and 
spotless.” The tiny fairy flew to the flower 
and held back one of the long petals. 

“See,” she said, “inside is a heart of 
gold.” 

Then Fee-fee hurried away, but she did 
not go far. Hiding among the thick 
branches of the trees, she watched the lad 
as he stood thoughtfully by the pool. 

“A heart of gold,” she heard him repeat. 
“A heart of gold would be a brave heart 
that would not grow discouraged. I will 
try to have a heart of gold.” 

He set to work with a will, and Fee-fee 
was well satisfied. She went straight to 
Fairy Grandmother and told her all about 
it. 

“Yes,” said she: 

“A heart of gold is brave and true, 

But a singing heart would help him, too.” 


A HEART OF GOLD 


135 


Fee-fee knew exactly what Fairy Grand¬ 
mother meant. The next day she went 
again to the woods and straight to the lad’s 
sleeve. He was delighted to see her. 

“I am going to have a brave heart—a 
heart of gold,” he told her. “I took the 
brave flower to Mother. It cheered her and 
she slept well. I know it will help her to 
see that I have a heart of gold.” 

“Yes,” said Fee-fee, “but Fairy Grand¬ 
mother says you also need a singing heart, 
and Fairy Grandmother is much—oh, 
ever so much—wiser than any one else. 
See that little bird with the broken wing? 
He would rather be in the tree-tops where 
there is sunshine, but since he can’t get 
there he sings anyway.” 

The fairy pointed to a bright yellow-and- 
black bird, a little goldfinch that had some¬ 
how wandered from the sunny fields. It 
stood on a log and whistled bravely, even 
though one wing touched the ground. 

“I will take it home with me and mend 



136 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

its wing,” said the lad. He placed it upon 
his load of wood, and all the way home it 
whistled merrily. The lad followed every 
trill, and learned to whistle almost as well. 

Fee-fee went again to the woods the 
third day, but this time she did not let the 
lad see her. His four younger brothers 
were with him, and they were all working 
happily together. 

“You said if we came to help, you would 
teach us to whistle as the bird with the 
singing heart taught you,” one of the 
brothers reminded the lad. As he worked, 
he willingly taught them the trills and runs 
he had learned from the little bird. The 
younger boys practised as they worked, 
and the piles of fagots grew. By night they 
had almost more than they could carry to 
the village. 

“We shall have enough money to buy 
four or five hens, and when Mother has 
fresh eggs to eat she will get well,” said the 
lad, proudly. 


A HEART OF GOLD 


137 


“We will come every day,” declared the 
younger brothers, “and perhaps we can 
buy a cow before winter.” 

Fee-fee was happy when she saw what a 
brave and singing heart could do. She 
often went to the woods to see the lad and 
his brothers as they whistled at their work. 
Sometimes she heard him telling them 
about seeing her and learning to have a 
golden heart, but Fee-fee never let him see 
her again. 


CHAPTER XIV 


HOW THE CORNFLOWER CAME TO 
THE GARDEN 

LL the little garden fairies were 



busy—oh, yes, very, very busy! 
The sun had disappeared behind 


the tree-tops, and the Sandman fairy was 
putting the tired little flowers to sleep. She 
had finished closing all the little Four- 
o’clock’s eyes, and now she was hustling 
about, making the daisies nod their sleepy 
heads. 

Yes, the Sandman fairy was busy and the 
Wake-up fairy was just as busy. She was 
waking the long white blossoms of the 
moon vine and those of the night-blooming 
cereus. 

“Come, wake up, my dears. The moths 
will be wanting a bit of honey.” 

“It’s a blessing the honeysuckle doesn’t 



HOW THE CORNFLOWER CAME 


139 


need sleep,” said the little Sandman fairy 
to the little Wake-up fairy. “I don’t know 
what we should do if every flower in the 
garden had to be put to sleep and waked 
up again.” 

The Butterfly fairy was waking the big 
beautiful moths just as fast as she could 
get the butterflies and the bees put to bed. 

The Bird fairy was putting her little 
charges to sleep one by one, and what a 
time she was having with the tiny hum¬ 
ming-bird, who loved to be always on the 
move. 

The Policeman fairy had her hands full 
too. Down in one corner of the garden the 
snapdragons were quarreling. And there 
was the tiger-lily! Poor tiger-lily—she had 
such a fierce disposition. Sweet alyssum 
was always trying to spread out her skirts, 
never thinking in her pride that she might 
smother the little forget-me-nots growing 
near. Yes, she had to be watched. 

The little fairies were all very busy, and 



i 4 o GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

there was no one on guard at the gate when 
the frolicking wind and a ragged little 
flower of the fields came racing down the 
road together. 

“Oh, let’s go in here,” cried the little 
ragged flower. And in they went. This gar¬ 
den, with its carefully-shaped beds and 
trimmed borders, was so beautiful and or¬ 
derly that the poor little ragged flower 
wished with all her heart she might stay. 
The little dried blossom had fallen on a 
rocky place and could not grow. There 
she had lain under the winter’s snow until 
the wind had caught her up and together 
they had searched for a suitable home. She 
had found no place that quite suited her 
until she entered the garden. 

“This is so lovely,” she murmured. 

“You may stay if you like,” said the 
wind. “I will cover you up with these 
leaves, and no one will find you.” 

There in a hollow lay the little flower of 
the fields. She was tired after her long 


HOW THE CORNFLOWER CAME 


141 

frolic with the wind, that had lasted 
through the spring and well into the sum¬ 
mer. Soon she fell asleep. The rains came 
and the soft earth covered the little darling. 
Then one day, when the warm sunshine 
fell upon her bed, she awoke with new life. 
She felt young and fresh, and she tried so 
hard to see the sun that she soon had her 
head above the ground. Then faster and 
faster she grew. She was eager to lift her 
head high so she might see all of the beau¬ 
tiful garden. 

In front of her were lovely delphiniums 
and proud larkspurs. Just back of her was 
a plant that interested her very much. It 
stood tall and straight, and its green leaves 
were long and slender. But even when the 
little plant stood on tiptoe she could see 
no blossoms. 

“No matter,” she softly told the big 
plant; “I will lend you my blossoms.” And 
she leaned her blue head close to her new 
friend. 


142 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

She was standing so when the Sandman’s 
fairy came along and noticed her. She 
threw sand in her eyes and the little flower 
sleepily bent her head. The Fairy Grand¬ 
mother passed by and saw her nodding 



there beside the tall stalk of sweet corn, for 
the little ragged flower of the fields had 
dropped down between the flower and the 
vegetable gardens. 








HOW THE CORNFLOWER CAME 


143 


“Why, how came this little stranger 
here?” asked the Fairy Grandmother. 

No one seemed to know. Then the tall 
corn spoke up proudly, “She is my little 
friend. She felt sorry for me because I did 
not have a pretty blossom,—just a plain 
uninteresting tassel,—and she offered to 
loan me her blue flower.” 

“Then she shall stay with you,” said the 
Fairy Grandmother, “and we will call her 
‘Cornflower.’ She looks well here in my 
blue corner. Fairies of the garden, see that 
you take good care of her.” 



CHAPTER XV 


THE DRYAD WITH THE SILVERY VOICE 

S ELDOM did the little fairy Fee-fee 
go to the stream in the woods with¬ 
out stopping to chat with Naiad, 
the little water nymph whose silvery tones 
could be heard night and day, making soft, 
tinkly music. 

“How long have you lived in this 
stream?” Fee-fee asked one day. 

“Ever since the Dryad with the silvery 
voice sent us out to every swift woodland 
stream. That was long ago, but still we joy¬ 
fully keep our streams clear and fresh, and 
sound our music that all may know spark¬ 
ling water is near.” 

After Fee-fee had left the wood she be¬ 
gan to wonder about the Dryad with the 
silvery voice. She wished she had asked 


144 


THE DRYAD WITH THE SILVER VOICE 145 

more about her, but it was too late to go 
back. The Fairy Grandmother would 
worry if she did not reach the nursery by 
the time darkness fell. But after the baby 
fairies had been put to bed that night she 
asked the Fairy Grandmother if she had 
ever seen the Dryad with the silvery voice. 

“No, I have never seen her. But she must 
be very lovely, for she was the first of the 
water nymphs.” 

“How could she be a water nymph if she 
was a dryad? The dryads live in oak- 
trees.” 

“Very true. The Dryad with the silvery 
voice was born with the baby shoots of an 
acorn, and she lived in her tree until the 
coming of the Prince. As a lad this Prince 
knew and understood fairies. One day he 
chanced to pass through the forest where 
the woodcutters were at work. They had 
been told to cut out dead wood and trees 
that had outlived their usefulness. With 
them was a small boy who longed to be a 


146 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

woodcutter, and when one of the men laid 
down his sharp ax, the boy picked it up 
and began to hack at a slender young 
oak-tree. The men laughed at him, think¬ 
ing it a clever, childish trick, but when the 
Prince saw it he cried out for him to stop. 

“ ‘Do you not know the tree may die if 
you hack its bark? The sap from the roots 
goes up just back of the bark to the leaves, 
where air and sunshine are breathed in to 
make the food upon which the tree lives. 
If you strip away the bark, the tree cannot 
live. And did you not know a little dryad 
lives in this oak? Have you not heard her 
softly singing? If this tree dies, the dryad 
who lives inside it will also die.’ 

“When the boy heard this he was very 
much ashamed, and so were the men who 
had permitted him to hack the tree. But 
there was rejoicing among the dryads. 
Those who heard the story first told those 
on the hillsides how the Prince had saved 
them. These told their sisters who lived up 


THE DRYAD WITH THE SILVER VOICE 147 

on the mountain-side, and finally the news 
reached the Dryad with the silvery voice, 
whose oak house stood high up on a moun¬ 
tain near a quiet little stream. She sang a 
‘Thank-you’ song, and all the birds and 
beasts stopped to listen, for it was such a 
glad, tinkly little song. 

“Now the Prince often went with his 
father, the King, on his hunting trips. He 
could shoot very well, and all the growing 
things of the forest interested him. Often, 
when the company rested at noonday, he 
would wander about looking at the trees, 
the flowers, and the small woods creatures. 
One day, when they rested high up on the 
mountain-side, he wandered farther away 
from his party than he thought. When he 
discovered he was in a strange part of the 
forest he turned and started back, but alas, 
he went the wrong way. When he did not 
come to the place where he had left the 
King and his hunters, he turned and went 
in another direction. He knew they would 


148 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

be anxiously searching for him, for there 
were many wild beasts in the forest. But if 
they did not know which way he went, how 
could they follow him? 

“All afternoon he wandered first this 
way and then that way. He picked a few 
wild blackberries as he went, but he was 
very thirsty and could find no water. At 
length it grew dark and he was much too 
tired to go on. 

“ ‘I will lie down here,’ he said, ‘and if I 
do not die of thirst I will surely find my 
way home to-morrow.’ 

“Very near the place where he lay stood 
the oak that sheltered the Dryad with the 
silvery voice, and just beyond her tree was 
a brook. In those days the streams made no 
sound as they rushed along, and the Prince 
could not see this brook in the darkness. 

“ ‘I will tell him about it,’ said the Dryad 
with the silvery voice. ‘He shall not suffer 
with thirst when water is near. He saved 
our lives; now I will save his.’ 


THE DRYAD WITH THE SILVER VOICE 149 

“She began to sing a tinkly little song 
that told of clear, cool water. The Prince 
heard, and staggered over to the oak-tree. 
He still did not see the stream, and thought 
the dryad was only teasing him. She kept 
up her murmuring song, trying to make 
him understand that he must go on a short 
distance. It was all she could do, but the 
Prince did not understand. He lay down 
in the hopes of resting, but he could not, 
because of the terrible thirst. The dryad 
sang on, yet her song brought no comfort 
to the suffering Prince. 

“At last midnight came. This is the hour 
when the dryads may leave their trees and 
frolic on the green. The Dryad with the 
silvery voice ran from her tree straight to 
the brook, and, jumping into the water, 
sang again her song. 

“ ‘The water is here. Come!’ she sang. 
The Prince followed the sound of her 
voice and found the clear, cool water. He 
drank until he was no longer thirsty; then 


150 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

he lay down and slept sweetly. But the 
Dryad, now a water nymph, kept up her 
gurgling little song. 

“Now it happened that the King and his 
men passed near the brook at daylight, 
after searching throughout the night for 
the young Prince. The King heard the 
silvery notes that came from the brook and 
said, ‘My men, that sound seems to speak 
of clear, cool water. You are weak with 
thirst; we will see if there be water here.’ 

“They followed the silvery notes of the 
song, and found not only fresh water, but 
discovered also the young Prince asleep by 
the singing brook. It was then that the 
silvery-voiced one taught her song to other 
fairies and set them to singing in all the 
mountain streams, that those who heard 
their tinkling music might know that fresh, 
cool water was near.” 



‘‘The water is here. Come!” 

























































CHAPTER XVI 


THE CIRCUS IN THE GARDEN 

O NE fine day the little people in 
the garden of the little lame Prin¬ 
cess were having a circus. 
“Hurry, hurry!” called the frog, from 
the lily-pad in the center of the pool. 
“Come and see the ballooning spider! See 
the beetle turn flipflops! See the living 
skeleton under the big top!” 

The “big top” was a broad leaf, and un¬ 
der this flocked crickets, lady-bugs, cater¬ 
pillars, katydids, and all other insects that 
wanted to see the show. 

Everything was peaceful enough until 
Bunny Puffball came hopping down the 
garden path. He stood for many long min¬ 
utes and gazed at the living skeleton. 

Bunny was very fat and round himself, and 

152 


THE CIRCUS IN THE GARDEN 


153 


he could not understand how anything 
could be as thin as this insect, known out¬ 
side the circus as the walking-stick. Be¬ 
cause the rabbit looked at him so long and 
so hard, the walking-stick began to think 
very well of himself. 

“Just see how folks stare at me,” said he. 
“I am the most interesting part of the cir¬ 
cus.” 

The ballooning spider became very an¬ 
gry at this. “I have had much more busi¬ 
ness than you, in spite of the fact that I 
charge two flies for each trip.” 

Whenever this spider spun her silken 
ropes and sailed away on the breeze, she 
was compelled to crawl back, and if she 
had not charged two flies she would have 
been very hungry before she could spin a 
new balloon and make another flight. 

Another member of the circus began to 
quarrel with the walking-stick. This was 
the click-beetle, who could jerk a hidden 
spring when he found himself on his back, 


154 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

and, with a loud clicking sound, could 
throw himself into the air and land on his 
feet. It was a very clever trick, and had de¬ 
lighted every one who saw it done. At that 
moment Ladybird was begging him to 
teach her children how to turn flipflops. 

“I am the most interesting member of 
the circus,” he said. 

“No, I am,” insisted the walking-stick. 

“Please understand that I am more in¬ 
teresting than any of you,” said the bal- 
looning-spider. 

So they quarreled until old Pop Toad 
suggested they allow the little lame Prin¬ 
cess to decide the matter. Pop Toad was 
sleepy, and wanted to get rid of the noisy 
folks so he could take a nap. All morning, 
for the price of one fly, he had been carry¬ 
ing on his broad back any who wished to 
ride. He chuckled to himself when he saw 
the angry spider, the walking-stick, and 
the beetle going off together. 

The three climbed to the castle room 



“I AM THE MOST INTERESTING MEMBER OF THE CIRCUS!” 

155 









156 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

with the nine windows, and made ready to 
show the Princess their tricks. They had 
agreed that the one who could amuse her 
the longest would be called the most in¬ 
teresting. The walking-stick, with proud 
step, moved along the edge of the window- 
box that was filled with blooming plants. 
A wasp flew to the top of the window 
where she was building her nest, and the 
moment the walking-stick heard her he 
stiffened himself out among the flowers. 
His six thin legs and his slender body 
looked like small twigs. He was playing 
his favorite game of hide-and-seek, and the 
Princess laughed aloud because it was so 
hard to find him, even when he was in 
plain sight. Then the Princess leaned far 
over, so she might look out and watch the 
wasp finish a neat little room with the mud 
she had brought. 

The ballooning-spider had crawled into 
a crack in the window-frame, for she also 
was afraid of the wasp. But when that busy 


THE CIRCUS IN THE GARDEN 


157 


insect had gone, the spider spun her silken 
ropes and made ready for flight. The Prin¬ 
cess clapped her hands in delight when the 
spider sailed away through the air, but she 
did not notice when the spider climbed 
back to the window-ledge, ready for a sec¬ 
ond flight. 

She was watching the wasp, who had 
brought a large fly and was pushing it into 
the room she had just finished. Then she 
quickly brought mud and closed the open¬ 
ing with it. The fly had appeared stunned, 
and the Princess knew it was intended for 
food. The wasp had laid an egg in that lit¬ 
tle walled-up room, and the grub that 
hatched from it would find its food await¬ 
ing it. 

The wasp flew away again, and the bee¬ 
tle made ready to show off. He climbed up 
the window-frame a short distance and fell 
over on his back. This did not hurt him, for 
two hard, shell-like cases covered his 
wings and his body. For a time he lay there 


158 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

with his six legs waving in the air. He 
looked quite helpless. Then suddenly, 
when the Princess reached to help him, 
there was a clicking sound and the beetle 
jumped high in the air and came down 
right side up. 

“Oh!” cried the Princess, it had hap¬ 
pened so quickly she could not understand 
how it was done. 

The beetle again lay on his back, ready 
to repeat the trick, but this time he was 
forced to spring into the air several times 
before he could turn himself over. Every 
time he sprang up he made that clicking 
sound, and this greatly amused the Prin¬ 
cess. 

“You see how it is,” said the beetle to the 
spider and the walking-stick. “The Prin¬ 
cess finds me the most interesting insect in 
the garden. I, alone, can hold her atten¬ 
tion.” 

But when the beetle tried his trick a 

» 

third time he found the Princess was not 


THE CIRCUS IN THE GARDEN 


i59 


looking at him at all. She was watching the 
wasp, who had brought more mud and was 
busily shaping a second room close by the 
first. 

“Ho, ho, Mr. Beetle,” laughed the walk¬ 
ing-stick. “It seems your little trick is not 
so interesting as you think. The Princess 
watches the wasp while you perform.” 

The beetle looked very much ashamed 
and did not answer. 

“Well,” said the spider, who was really 
a very wise insect, “perhaps all three of us 
would be more interesting if we stopped 
trying to show off and went on about our 
business. That is what the wasp is doing.” 

“You are right,” the walking-stick de¬ 
clared. “I am going back to the oak-tree 
where I belong.” 

Without another word he disappeared 
over the edge of the window-sill. The bal- 
looning-spider spun her silken ropes and 
floated away. But the beetle was very fond 
of his trick. He made his way back to the 


i6o GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

circus under the broad leaf of the rhubarb 
plant, and there, with the fierce ant-lion on 
one side and the tiger-beetle on the other, 
he performed his trick as long as any 
would stay to watch him. 


CHAPTER XVII 

froggy’s great mistake 

P OOR Froggy was very unhappy. 
He had a broad pond-lily leaf upon 
which he could sit and see every¬ 
thing that happened in the pool or near it. 
He had a big voice with which he led the 
chorus that serenaded the little lame Prin¬ 
cess every evening. He had a green-and- 
yellow suit that was not only beautiful but 
serviceable as well; for this suit was water¬ 
proof, and when anything frightened him 
he could jump into the water without wait¬ 
ing to change his clothes. But in spite of 
his fine seat on the pond-lily leaf, his big 
voice, and his nice suit, he was only a frog. 

“No one respects a frog,” he said aloud, 
as he sat on the lily-leaf. “Even the gold¬ 
fish in the pool are not afraid to nibble at 

161 



162 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

my toes if I happen to stick them beyond 
the leaf. I cannot fight to protect myself. If 
a large bird of prey comes to the garden, I 
can do nothing but hide.” 


Poor Froggy! 

Indeed it was sad to be a frog, and as he 
thought about it two big tears rolled from 
his goggly eyes and splashed into the 
water. Poor Froggy! Two more tears 
splashed into the pool, and he would have 









































FROGGY'S GREAT MISTAKE 163 

lost many more if he had not happened to 
see something very interesting at that mo¬ 
ment. Bunny Puffball was standing on the 
very edge of the pool and leaning far over 
to see the tears splash into the water. He 
had never seen tears before, and he had no 
idea what they were. 

The edge of the pool was wet and slip¬ 
pery. As the frog looked up the little rabbit 
lost his balance, and it was all he could do 
to keep from falling into the pool. 

“Dearie me!” said Bunny, when he had 
moved back to a safe place. “If a frog can 
be so unhappy in a pool, I am sure it would 
not be a good place for a rabbit. Why do 
you cry?” 

“I am tired of being a frog and living 
here with saucy goldfish. I should like to 
leave the pool and fly about as the birds do.” 
Robin, who had stopped at the pool for a 
drink of water, heard the unhappy frog’s 
wish. 

“I wish you were a bird,” said Robin. 


164 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

“Then you could help us feed the young 
birds.” 

Froggy had noticed that the robin and 
his mate had worked very hard to feed the 
young birds in the nest, and before these 
there had been another brood to feed. Then 
there had been nest-building early in the 
spring. After thinking it over for a time, 
Froggy decided he did not want to be a 
bird. 

“Why don’t you go to the stream and 
live with the turtles?” suggested Bunny. 

The frog knew that the turtles never 
worked. Like the frogs, they neither built 
nests nor cared for the young. The mother 
turtles buried the eggs in the sand or soft 
earth of the bank, and when the sun had 
hatched them the baby turtles were able to 
feed and care for themselves. Froggy de¬ 
cided to live with the turtles. He had never 
seen the stream, but he was sure it was 
much nicer than the pool, so he said 
good-by to the goldfish that loved to tease 


FROGGY'S GREAT MISTAKE 165 

him and asked Bunny to lead the way to 
the stream. 

The early morning dew was still spar¬ 
kling on the grass, and Froggy liked the 
feel of it as he went jumping along. “This 
is fine. I wonder why I ever stayed in that 
quiet pool.” 

He liked the rush of the stream when he 
reached it, he liked the swish of the water 
as it rushed by the water plants, in fact, he 
was very happy in his new home until the 
fish became interested in him. At first only 
small fish swam around and around him, 
and very dull and ugly the frog thought 
them when he compared them with the 
goldfish of the pool. Then larger fish 
came. One was so large that Froggy 
jumped out on the bank in great fear of be¬ 
ing swallowed up. 

“What is the matter?” asked Bunny. 
“Don’t you like the stream?” 

“Oh, yes,” said Froggy, “I like it very 
much; but—I—I thought I would hunt up 



166 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

the turtles, since I am to live with them.” 

The frog did not like to admit that he 
had been afraid of the big fish. Farther up 
the stream they came upon a turtle sound 
asleep on the bank. 

“Wake up,” said Froggy. “I have come 
to play with you.” 

The turtle stuck his head and his long 
neck out from under his shell and blinked 
at the frog, but after two or three blinks he 
pulled his head back and went to sleep 
again. 

“Wake up,” begged Froggy. “I want to 
play with you.” 

It was no use. The turtle would not play 
—he would not even talk to the frog. 
Near by another turtle slept in the sun¬ 
shine, which was quite warm by this time. 
The second turtle also refused to wake up. 

“I never saw such lazy creatures in all 
my life,” said Froggy. “I don’t think I 
should enjoy playing with them, anyway.” 

Bunny was sorry the frog had been dis- 


FROGGY’S GREAT MISTAKE 167 

appointed, and he suggested they follow 
the stream to the lake the beavers had made 
by building a dam across it. 

“I saw several young beavers playing 
there the other day, and I am sure they will 
play with you.” 

It was not a difficult trip up-stream, al¬ 
though the frog found it necessary to stop 
often and refresh himself by jumping into 
the water. When they reached the dam the 
frog felt rewarded for his hard work. In 
the lake just beyond, several young bea¬ 
vers were slapping the water with their 
flat tails, chasing each other about, and 
having a fine time. They welcomed the 
frog and began at once to dive and swim 
with him in the water and race with him on 
the banks. Poor Froggy seemed happy at 
last. 

While Bunny Puffball was watching the 
play he heard Billy Chickadee calling, 
and since Froggy was happy, Bunny felt 
free to go in search of his friend. 


168 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

The chickadee was glad to see him, and 
said almost immediately: “I was wishing 
you would come up. I have something 
funny to show you.” 

Of course Bunny wanted to know what 
it was, but the bird refused to tell. He led 
the way up the stream. As they went along 
Bunny inquired about the young chicka¬ 
dees and learned that they were able to 
care for themselves. 

“Very capable birds, they are,” said 
Billy proudly; “very capable indeed.” 

They came to a place where a large rock 
had fallen across the stream, and in the 
pool back of it Bunny was amazed to find 
the little bear. He was sitting very quietly 
in the water trying to catch a fish. 

“He is still a very young bear,” laughed 
Chickadee. “You remember we told him 
to sit in the water, when his fur was cov¬ 
ered with mud and trash, and he would 
find himself. Well, he caught a fish that 


FROGGY’S GREAT MISTAKE 


169 

day, and now he comes every day to sit in 
the pool and fish.” 

Bunny Puffball began to laugh. He 
laughed so hard he almost fell into the 
stream. 

“He is very young, isn’t he, Billy Chick¬ 
adee?” 

“Yes,” said the bird. And they both 
laughed harder than ever. 

“Please hush,” begged the little bear in 
the pool. “You will frighten the fish.” 

Not far away a large blue-gray bird, 
with a large strong bill, sat upon a log. As 
Bunny glanced at him he suddenly dived 
downward and came up with a small fish. 
He struck the head of the fish against the 
log two or three times and then swallowed 
it whole, head first. 

“That is the way to catch fish,” said 
Bunny. “Watch the kingfisher.” 

Another bird came from a hole in the 
side of the sandy bank. She skimmed 


170 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

gracefully over the water, dived suddenly, 
and came up with a fish. The chickadee 
thought the kingfishers were queer birds. 

“They made their nest at the end of that 
tunnel in the bank. It must be very dark 
and stuffy for the young birds, and I am 
told they lined the nest with fish-bones in¬ 
stead of soft feathers.” 

But even Chickadee was willing to ad¬ 
mit that these beautiful birds could catch 
fish, and the little bear begged Kingfisher 
to teach him how. The bird was willing to 
do so, and the little bear tried hard, but he 
was too awkward. He could lie quietly 
enough on the log until a fish swam by, 
but always, when he tried to grab a fish, he 
would fall headlong into the stream. It was 
jolly fun for Chickadee and Bunny. But 
the fun was over when Kingfisher said he 
would much rather catch fish for the little 
bear than try any longer to teach him how 
to do it for himself. 

Bunny spent a pleasant day in the 


FROGGY'S GREAT MISTAKE 171 

woods, and that night slept soundly in his 
little home under the garden wall. The 
next morning he was surprised to see 
Froggy limping towards the pool. He was 
dirty and almost exhausted. He would not 
stay to answer Bunny’s questions, but im¬ 
mediately dived to the bottom of the pool. 
It was late afternoon before he again came 
to sit on his lily-leaf, but Bunny was watch¬ 
ing for him. 

“Why didn’t you stay and play with the 
beavers?” 

“There was a leak in the dam, and they 
wanted me to help carry mud and sticks to 
mend it. The leader spoke of going soon 
into the woods to mark the willow-trees, 
the alders, and the aspens that the young 
beavers were to cut down for food. They 
told me they must dig canals and bring the 
trees down from great distances, and that 
every tree must be cut up into small sec¬ 
tions. Then they must repair their houses 
and do ever so many other things.” 


172 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

The poor frog sighed when he thought 
of all the work the beavers must do. “There 
was a wild duck on the lake and he tried 
to eat me. If his wing had not been injured, 
I could not have escaped. I wanted noth¬ 
ing in the world but to get back to this dear 
old pool. Then an owl tried to eat me. I 
jumped into the stream to get away from 
the owl, and there were the big, ugly fish. 
Oh, it was terrible!” 

“Well,” said Bunny, “I am sorry you 
had such a hard time, but we are glad to 
have you in the garden of the little lame 
Princess.” 

“Never, never will I leave this pool,” de¬ 
clared the frog. And Bunny knew he 
would never again be unhappy enough to 
drop big, goggly tears into the quiet water 
of the pool.” 


CHAPTER XVIII 


THE POOL 

B UNNY PUFFBALL spent many 
of the hot summer days near the 
top of the mountain where it was 
much cooler. Playing about up there he 
thought of Froggy and his return to the 
pool after a vain search for a better place 
to live. He wondered if the frog was glad 
to be back in the garden of the little lame 
Princess, or if he was as discontented as 
ever. 

He went down to the garden late one 
afternoon and found the old frog sitting 
motionless on the same lily-pad near the 
edge of the pool. His satiny green-and- 
yellow suit was slick and shiny. He ap¬ 
peared to be sleeping, but, as Bunny 

173 


174 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

watched, his long tongue shot out and 
caught a passing fly. 

“Well, Froggy, how does the pool look 
to you now?” he asked. “Does it still seem 
a sad thing to be a frog and live in a 
pool?” 

The frog opened one eye and looked at 
the rabbit. “There is no place in the wide 
world so interesting as the pool in the gar¬ 
den of the little lame Princess. Here I get 
the best of food without working for it. 
Here I may find entertainment of the high¬ 
est order, and that without moving a mus¬ 
cle.” 

He nodded towards the center of the 
pool where a couple of water beetles were 
having a race. Comical fellows they were, 
with feet that spread out like oars; with 
these they rowed themselves rapidly along. 
All about the pool little “whirligigs” were 
spinning, leaving tiny waves behind them. 
Under the surface of the water the bright 
goldfish swam about. One impudent little 


THE POOL 


175 


fellow leaped out of the water and snapped 
at Froggy’s foot. 

“I am glad you find the pool interesting 
now,” said Bunny. “But do not these fish 
still bother you?” 

Froggy moved over to the center of the 
lily-pad. “They are much prettier than the 
fish in the stream, and I don’t mind their 
having a little fun at my expense. You see, 
I was once a fish myself, and I understand 
their playful natures.” 

“You were once a fish yourself?” Bunny 
was greatly surprised. 

“Oh, yes. I once lived in the water alto¬ 
gether and had a much finer tail than most 
baby fish.” 

“What did you do with your tail?” 

“I ate it.” 

“You ate your tail!” Bunny was so 
shocked at the thought that he raised his 
voice to a loud squeal. Fie never talked 
very loud, and this unusual sound at¬ 
tracted the attention of some of the little 


176 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

garden people. A butterfly settled on a 
dead leaf lying at the edge of the pool. A 
little trap-door opened in the ground just 



A LITTLE TRAP-DOOR IN FRONT OF BUNNY. 

in front of Bunny, and a tiny spider looked 
out. A small lizard left his tree and crawled 
out upon the gravel walk. Robin put down 
a cutworm he was about to devour, and 
considered the matter of the frog having 
eaten his tail. 





THE POOL 


177 


“Why didn’t you find a worm to eat in¬ 
stead?” he asked, holding his own tail 
high in the air. 

Froggy looked at him scornfully. “It 
was during my second stage, when I was 
changing from a fish to a frog. As a tad¬ 
pole, I found it necessary to breathe 
through gills, as the fish do. At that time I 
had no feet, and lived on vegetable matter. 
Growing tired of this, I gradually devel¬ 
oped lungs and limbs. Then I decided to 
cast off my old suit and wear this hand¬ 
some one. It was during this trying stage 
that I lived on the nourishment stored 
up in my tail, and I used up every bit of 
it.” 

Bunny Puffball stared in amazement. 
He had not experienced any of the 
changes of which so many little people of 
the garden could boast. He had always 
been as he was at that time, only a little 
smaller and a little more timid. 

The butterfly was not so greatly im- 


178 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

pressed with Froggy’s story or with his 
grand manner. 

“I have also had three very different 
stages,” she reminded him. “I crept from 
the egg as a caterpillar, and I am willing 
to admit I was very much afraid of you, 
Mr. Robin. But tell me, do you know of 
anything so wonderful as the changing of 
the caterpillar into the creature I now 
am?” 

The frog did not answer for a time. He 
was watching a strange object that crawled 
slowly up the stem of the reed. It hung mo¬ 
tionless for a time, so long, in fact, that 
Robin grew tired of waiting and flew 
away. Bunny felt that something wonder¬ 
ful was about to happen. The butterfly, the 
trap-door spider, and the little lizard knew 
exactly what that something was going to 
be. Presently it began to jerk itself about, 
and it kept this up until its coat cracked 
down the middle. Out came, to Bunny’s 
great surprise, a beautiful dragon-fly. It 


THE POOL 


179 


dried its wings in the sun as Bunny had 
seen the butterfly do, and then it darted 
here and there, its eyes gleaming like clus¬ 
ters of jewels. 

“Yes,” said the butterfly, “the changes 
of the dragon-fly are quite as wonderful as 
our own. But I think the chrysalis stage 
much nicer than the grub stage.” 

Bunny knew nothing whatever about 
the former state of the beautiful creature 
that dipped above the pool, and was much 
interested when Froggy pointed out a very 
ugly creature in the shallow water. As he 
watched, this grub, that would later be¬ 
come a dragon-fly, reached out and pulled 
in a wiggler. 

“That wiggler would have been a mos¬ 
quito some day, and would have tasted 
good to me,” said Froggy. But though he 
shook his head sadly, it was plain he did 
not care how many mosquitoes the dragon¬ 
flies ate so long as they, with their bright 
colors, made a pretty picture above the 


180 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

pool he now thought so wonderful. He 
proudly showed Bunny a little boat sail¬ 
ing about upon the water. It was really a 
raft a mosquito had made by binding to¬ 
gether several hundred eggs, and fitting 
them with air-bubbles to keep them afloat. 

There were similar floats which Froggy 
said were the eggs of the gnats, and he ex¬ 
plained that these, like the eggs of the 
dragon-fly, would hatch out queer little 
grubs. They would also live in the water 
and breathe through tubes in their tails, as 
did the grubs of the dragon-fly. 

It was all very wonderful to Bunny. 
“What large eyes the dragon-fly has!” said 
he. For the first time he noticed how large 
the eyes of the frog were, and those of the 
butterfly. It was plain that he and the birds 
were not the only creatures that could 
see in every direction. But suddenly 
Bunny thought of something else. 

“Froggy, how do any of you hear? I 
seem to have the only ears among us.” 


THE POOL 


181 


He proudly wagged his long ears, but 
Froggy looked at them disdainfully. “Is 
that what you call those things? I often 
wondered what they were. What do you do 
with them?” 

“I hear with them. Why, I never thought 
of it before, but where are your ears?” 

“Just back of my eyes. The birds, the liz¬ 
ard, and myself get along very well with¬ 
out having ears that will wag.” 

Bunny could not believe that they could 
hear with ears that could not be seen. They 
had quite an argument about it. Suddenly 
there came the sound of a step on the walk, 
and a strange-looking man appeared from 
behind a shrub. He was very, very short 
and very, very round; his face was very 
red, and he was dressed all in white, with 
a funny white cap on his head. The second 
his footstep was heard the frog dived into 
the pool. Bunny flattened himself against 
the brownish-green grass, feeling certain 
he would not be seen if he kept perfectly 


182 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

quiet. The butterfly had folded her lovely 
wings together above her, and the mottled 
appearance of the under sides of the 
wings made her look like a part of the 
dead leaf upon which she rested. The 
spider had shut her trap-door. A bit of 
moss grew on the door, and no one would 
ever have guessed it was there. The little 
lizard in a twinkling of an eye had 
changed to a yellowish-brown color that 
almost exactly matched the color of the 
walk. 

Considering these things Bunny was 
willing to admit that it might be possible 
to hear without what he considered real 
ears. He waited a moment after the strange 
man had passed, but the frog did not again 
appear. He decided it might be best for 
him to hide in his little home under the 
stone wall. 

At dusk he came out again and hunted 
up Cricket, to find out if he knew any¬ 
thing about the strange man who visited 


THE POOL 


183 


the garden. Now it happened that Cricket 
had that very afternoon spent several hours 
in the kitchen of the castle. 

“That man,” said Cricket, “was the 
baker. He came to the garden to pick the 
hops from the vine. From these he makes 
the yeast which is used in baking bread.” 

“Thank you, Cricket; it is a very fine 
thing to live at the castle.” 

“It is, indeed,” Cricket agreed. Then, 
with wave of his sixth foot which seemed 
to indicate that he ran the affairs of the 
little lame Princess, he invited the little 
rabbit to the castle to hear the story the 
good nurse was to tell the Princess at bed¬ 
time. 

The rabbit was glad to accept the in¬ 
vitation, for he had not heard a story for 
some time. So they went off together, each 
r ak ing very long jumps for his size. 


CHAPTER XIX 


THE REWARD KING 

W HEN Bunny Puffball and 

Cricket went to hear the nurse 
tell the little lame Princess a 
story, Cricket went into the castle by a 
secret passage he had made for himself. 
But Bunny curled himself up under one 
of the nine long windows. Low shrubs 
grew there, and with his body pressed 
against the cool earth he was very com¬ 
fortable and could hear every word. 

The little Princess was wishing she 
might have had another piece of pie for 
dinner. 

“Oh, no,” cried the nurse. “The doctor 
said you might have only one piece. Had 
you taken more, the Reward King would 
have brought you bad dreams.” 


THE REWARD KING 


185 


“Who is the Reward King?” 

“Have I never told you of the Reward 
King?” the nurse asked in a surprised 
voice. The little Princess was sure she had 
never heard of him, so the nurse seated 
herself by the window to begin her story. 

“I shall tell you about the time the Re¬ 
ward King was caught. He goes about 
at night rewarding good and bad children, 
according to what they deserve. No one 
has ever seen the Reward King except one 
little boy whose name was Adsel. 

“One night Adsel was trying very hard 
to go to sleep. With both eyes tight shut 
he lay as still as still could be. Then when 
he did happen to open one eye a tiny bit, 
he saw something that made both eyes pop 
open wide. There on the foot of his bed 
sat the funniest little old man you could 
well imagine. 

“He was very, very short and very, very 
fat, and his face was covered with laugh 
wrinkles. He wore shiny knee-breeches of 


186 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

bright-red satin. His pointed shoes and 
peaked hat were green. His stockings and 
long-tailed coat were yellow, and in his 
hands he carried two large baskets with 
covers on them. 

“This funny little old man made a dash 
for the window when he saw Adsel was 
awake. But one of his baskets caught on 
the window-sill, and, before he could get 
it loose, Adsel had hopped out of bed and 
grabbed his coat-tails. 

“ ‘Oh, please, Mr. Funny Little Man,’ 
cried Adsel, ‘wont you come back and tell 
me who you are?’ 

“Then the funny little man sat down 
cross-legged on the window-sill and 
laughed and laughed and laughed. 

“ ‘ Just think,’ he chuckled, ‘I have been 
going to see children every night for ever 
so long, and this is the first time I was ever 
caught. Of course I shall have to tell such 
a quick little fellow who I am. Hear me 
now—I am the REWARD KING. I go 


THE REWARD KING 187 

about at night and give the children their 
rewards while they sleep. If they have 



“I am the Reward King.” 


been good, I give them something nice. 
If they have been bad, I give them what 
they deserve. Now you have been good to¬ 
day, and since you have caught me I will 
















188 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

let you choose your own reward. Would 
you like a good night’s rest, or would you 
like to go with me and have a real adven¬ 
ture?’ 

“ ‘Oh, please let me go with you. I like 
adventures.’ 

“ ‘Then hold tight to this basket and we 
will be off.’ 

“As soon as Adsel had grasped the 
handle of the basket he found himself sail¬ 
ing out of the window as though he had 
wings. At the first house they found a little 
girl who had been very good. 

“ ‘She allowed another little girl to play 
with her best doll while she played with an 
old one,’ said the Reward King. ‘I will 
give her a beautiful dream doll to play 
with.’ 

“He took a beautiful doll from one of 
the baskets and placed it in the little girl’s 
arms. She smiled in her sleep, and Adsel 
knew she would have a very happy night. 

“They flew out of the window and 


THE REWARD KING 189 

straight to another house. The Reward 
King was reading from a long roll of pa¬ 
pers as he went. ‘The boy in this house 
ate five doughnuts between meals when 
his mother told him not to eat any until 
morning. I will have to reward him ac¬ 
cordingly.’ He took from the other basket 
two little imps with sharp spears, and set 
them on the little boy’s stomach. They be¬ 
gan to jump up and down, pricking the 
boy with their spears. He began to twist 
about and groan in his sleep. 

“ ‘They are hurting him,’ cried Adsel. 

“ ‘Yes,’ said the little man, ‘his mother 
told him they would, and he kept right 
on eating. I suppose this is what he wants.’ 

“They left the little imps there and went 
on to the big house on the corner. Here 
they found a big boy and a little boy. 

“Now let me see,” said the Reward 
King, unrolling his long paper. ‘This big 
boy took a ball away from the little fellow. 
Very well, the little boy shall have a magic 


igo GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

ball that will do all sorts of wonderful 
things. The big boy does not deserve a 
good time. I will leave a monkey here to 
hit him on the head with a hard ball.’ 

“He took a little monkey from his bas¬ 
ket and gave him a hard ball to throw at 
the big boy, and when Adsel looked back 
from the window he could tell that the lit¬ 
tle boy was having a happy time, but the 
other one was most uncomfortable. 

“At one place they found a little boy 
who had allowed a playmate to ride his 
tricycle, turn and turn about, all after¬ 
noon. He was given a fairy pony to ride. 

“Then there was the girl who had 
played in the wet grass without her rub¬ 
bers, when her mother had told her twice 
to put them on. Two little imps were left to 
poke at her throat with their sharp spears. 
The Reward King looked very sad. ‘She 
will have a sore throat by morning, but 
perhaps she will be careful to mind next 
time.’ 


THE REWARD KING 


191 

“The boy who didn’t go to bed when his 
mother told him to, was given sleepy drops 
that would surely make him late for school 
the next morning. And this boy didn’t like 
to be late to school—not at all. 

“ ‘How do you find out what all the boys 
and girls do? You can’t watch all of them, 
can youP’Adsel asked. 

“ ‘Oh, no! No, indeed! I am much too 
small for such a task. But Daylight and 
Darkness see everything. They make out 
this long list together, and give it to me 
just before I start out at night.’ 

“Adsel thought about this very hard, 
and when the Reward King left him on 
the ledge of his window at daybreak, he 
had made up his mind to be very, very 
careful. He did not mean to let Daylight 
or Darkness see him do anything that 
might bring unpleasant rewards, but he 
did not forget that also there were good 
rewards worth working for.” 


CHAPTER XX 


NIGHT IN THE GARDEN 

B UNNY Puffball sat by the stone 
wall and watched the shadows 
deepen in the garden of the little 
lame Princess. The sun had long since 
disappeared behind the tall castle, and 
now it no longer touched even the tops of 
the trees with its gold. A tired butterfly 
settled on a bush near by, and, folding its 
wings tight together, went peacefully to 
sleep. The little bunch of sheep-sorrel 
growing by the wall dropped its leaves 
down along the stems, like folded umbrel¬ 
las. The dandelions also went to sleep, and 
Bunny, noticing them, hoped they would 
not sleep too long. He had noticed that 
they sometimes had white heads when they 

192 


NIGHT IN THE GARDEN 


193 


wakened, as if their dreams had been too 
long. 

As it grew darker, the daytime noises of 
the garden ceased, and new sounds were 
heard. The song of the birds was now no 
more than a sleepy twitter, and soon that 
would cease. Bunny liked the twilight 
hours when the little people of the day pre¬ 
pared to rest, and those of the night came 
out to feed and frolic. 

Old Pop Toad hopped out from under 
a large leaf where he had been hiding all 
day, and squatted silently beside Bunny. 
The little rabbit knew what he was wait¬ 
ing for. 

“She was here a moment ago, trying to 
sting me on the nose, and I am sure she 
will be back,” said Bunny. 

That very instant Mrs. Mosquito came. 
They heard a buzzing sound, and, without 
moving, Pop Toad ran out his long 
tongue and caught the mosquito. Bunny 
was glad. He was on good terms with her 


194 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

husband, for he, poor fellow, could nei¬ 
ther buzz nor sting. But many a time the 
cross lady mosquito had tried to draw 
blood from his ears. 

A large and very beautiful moth flew 
to a bunch of deep-cupped flowers that 
had remained open in order to give her 
some of their honey. The yellow' primroses 
liked to entertain the bumblebees and the 
moths from four to seven each day. 

“Such a strange thing happened,” the 
moth told Bunny. “I flew past the win¬ 
dow of the little Princess a moment ago, 
and at sight of me she cried, ‘What a beau¬ 
tiful butterfly! Think of mistaking me for 
a butterfly!” 

“You look very much like one,” Bunny 
reminded her. “And since you were fly¬ 
ing, she probably did not have time to no¬ 
tice how much larger your body was than 
that of the butterfly, or that you wear a 
plume on your head instead of two stiff 
wires.” 


NIGHT IN THE GARDEN 


195 


“That is true,” agreed the moth, “she 
saw only my lovely wings. If I had stopped 
a moment on her window-box, she might 
have noticed that I rest with my wings 
spread wide, instead of folded together, 
as the butterfly does.” 

A firefly came that way, flashing his lit¬ 
tle lantern here and there, darting under 
the bushes and searching out the deepest 
shadows. 

“Have you lost something?” Bunny 
asked him. 

“Why, no, I am just looking around. I 
never had a light before, and it is such fun 
to brighten up the dark places.” 

“Where did you get your light?” 

“That I cannot tell you. I went to sleep 
in the ground where I had always lived, 
and when I awakened I was a beetle with 
wings for flying, and had this wonderful 
light to brighten the way. Of course I did 
not care to stay in the ground any longer.” 

Bunny stared at the bug in surprise. “I 


i 9 6 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

am telling you the truth,” declared the 
bug. “I do not know how it happened, but 
it did happen. I hatched out in the ground; 
my body was a number of joints, and the 
three nearest my head had a pair of feet 
apiece. There was plenty of food under¬ 
ground, and I amused myself by digging 
tunnels and caves. When I grew too large 
for my suit, I shed it and took another. To¬ 
day I waked up and found myself a beetle. 
That is my story, but I do not ask you to 
believe it. I can scarcely believe it myself.” 

Bunny was quite willing to believe, for 
many things as strange as this had hap¬ 
pened in the garden. He looked at the light 
which the firefly so proudly flashed. “Does 
it make you warm?” he asked. The firefly 
assured him that he carried no heat, only 
light. He showed him how he could fold 
his dainty flying wings down over the 
light without harm to them. Bunny was 
about to ask if his hard outer wings were 
merely used to protect the flying wings, 


NIGHT IN THE GARDEN 


197 


but the firefly saw the flash of other lights 
like his own, and hurried away to join his 
companions. 

Bunny did not mind. He liked to watch 
the lights flashing about the garden. He 
could hear Froggy’s hoarse voice from the 
pool. Katydid, in a tree near by, was sing¬ 
ing as loud as he could, and Cricket’s 
voice was also to be heard. Suddenly there 
was a burst of song from the tree-top, and 
all the other noises were instantly hushed. 
The whole garden listened to the song that 
trilled and warbled. It was the hermit 
thrush, singing his evening hymn for the 
little lame Princess. This thrush lived high 
up on the mountain, it was said, although 
no one in the garden really knew. Each 
evening he came to the garden to sing. It 
was a habit with him. 

“Sleep, little Princess. Rest and grow 
strong,” he sang. 

There was a great stillness in the garden 
after the song was ended, and then other 


198 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

little garden people took it up, each sing¬ 
ing it in his own way, but none so beau¬ 
tifully. The moon poked his big round 
face above the garden wall and smiled at 
Bunny. The little rabbit smiled back. 
When he wandered over to the pool, a sec¬ 
ond moon smiled at him from the surface 
of the water. 

“A fine evening,” said Froggy, “much 
too fine for sleeping.” 

Bunny agreed. A dark object suddenly 
darted towards him, and the little rabbit 
jumped into the bush. 

“That is only the bat,” laughed Froggy. 
“He has grown tired of hanging upside 
down all day in the castle tower, and has 
come out for his supper.” 

Bunny could see him darting this way 
and that, catching insects as he flew. In 
the distance could be heard the call of the 
whippoorwills as they searched for food. 
Bunny knew it would be a bad night for 
mosquitos and other winged pests. 


NIGHT IN THE GARDEN 


199 


He came out from under the shrub and 
explained, “When I caught sight of the 
bat, I thought it was an owl.” 

Froggy declared he was not afraid of 
any owl that lived. 

“Who, who! Who says that?” asked a 
strange voice, and Froggy changed his 
mind. 

“I think I’ll be going to bed,” and the 
frog dived into the pool. 

Bunny did not move. The voice seemed 
to come from the long distance, but the 
rabbit knew it was quite near. His eyes 
searched the limbs of the tree until he saw 
two bright eyes staring down at him. It 
was an owl. At first Bunny was very much 
frightened, but as he looked he was able, 
in the moonlight, to make out the lines of 
the body. It was only a little screech-owl. 
Bunny was not very much afraid of so 
small an owl, but the two big eyes staring 
at him made him feel most uncomfortable. 
Fie noticed the eyes were so placed that the 


200 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

bird could only see straight ahead. Bunny 
decided to slip around behind him and • 
thus get out of sight. 



Only a little screech-owl. 


To his surprise, the bird moved his head 
as he moved, and still the big eyes were 
upon him, even though the body of the 
bird was turned the other way. Bunny did 
not like to be watched so closely. He de¬ 
cided to talk the matter over with the bird. 

“You are only a screech-owl,” he said. 





NIGHT IN THE GARDEN 


201 


“You eat mice, sparrows, and such things. 
You could not possibly eat anything so 
large as a rabbit.” 

The owl made no reply, and Bunny be¬ 
came even more uneasy. 

“I find I am rather sleepy, and if you 
will excuse me I will go to bed.” 

Still the bird made no answer, and 
Bunny slipped away. He was glad to let 
the owl have the garden to himself. 

“Unsociable bird, to say the least,” he 
grunted, as he crawled into the hole under 
the garden wall. 


CHAPTER XXI 


THE GOLD-DUST FLOWER 

W HEN the little lame Princess 
was a baby, a tall weed grew 
just beyond the garden wall 
and close to the high gate at the back of 
the garden. When the wind was friendly 
it could lean far over and peep at the 
flowers through the iron bars of the gate. 
These were happy times for the weed, for 
it greatly admired the beautiful blossoms 
in the garden. 

One day it said to itself, “I, too, will be a 
flower and grow a wonderful blossom that 
all may enjoy.” 

That summer it grew tall and straight 
and put forth a green head. But in the fall 
the head dried up and became an ugly, 
colorless thing like the other grasses and 


202 


THE GOLD-DUST FLOWER 


203 


weeds. After all, it was only a weed. The 
next spring it sent its roots deeper. Again 
it grew tall and straight and put forth a 
green head. But as before there was no 
flower. Year after year the tall weed tried 
to grow a blossom, as did the flowers in 
the garden, but finally it gave it up. 

“I will think no more about myself,” it 
decided. “If I cannot add beauty to the 
world, I will try to help those who can.” 

The following spring the weed looked 
down and found many wild flowers need¬ 
ing help. A little violet plant close beside 
it was having a hard time. 

“How can I blossom when I get so little 
sunshine?” it said. And the weed that had 
not yet grown tall, replied: “I will help 
you. I will hold my leaves tight against 
my stalk so they will not keep the sun from 
reaching you.” 

Now it happened that the Gold-dust 
fairy was coming that way to bring a bit 
of gold for the heart of the violet blossoms. 


204 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

She heard what the weed said and it pleased 
her. 

A few weeks later the buttercup plants 
began to complain. “The sun is so hot it 
draws all the moisture away from our 
roots.” They were beginning to wilt, and 
the weed felt very sorry for them. 

“I will grow taller and shade you as 
much as I can,” it promised. Pushing its 
green head up higher, it spread out its 
leaves so as to make as much shade as pos¬ 
sible. The little buttercups began to grow 
when the sun no longer scorched the 
ground around them. When the Gold-dust 
fairy brought the gold for their blossoms, 
they told her how kind the tall weed had 
been to them. 

About that time a young morning-glory 
plant, getting a late start, was in danger 
of being smothered by the grass that grew 
tight around it. 

“If only I could get up higher!” wailed 
the little plant. “The people then could 


THE GOLD-DUST FLOWER 


205 


enjoy my blossoms as they pass along the 
path in the early mornings. But my stem 
is so frail it will not stand in the strong 
wind.” 

The weed heard and quickly answered: 
“I will help you. Wrap your stem around 
my sturdy stalk and I will support your 
blossoms.” 

The Gold-dust fairy passed on her way 
from the pool. She had her bag of gold 
dust with her, for she had been sprinkling 
gold into the hearts of the water-lilies. 
And when the fairy saw the weed gently 
supporting the frail morning-glory, she 
emptied out upon the head of the weed 
all the gold that remained in the bag. 
There the little particles of gold clung 
and grew, spreading out in feathery sprays 
as the summer slipped by. 

The buttercups and the morning-glory, 
like the violet, ceased sending out their 
flowers. And when the first chill winds of 
autumn came, the tall weed stood alone by 


206 garden of the little lame princess 

the pathway leading from the back of the 
castle garden. Then came the birthday of 
the little lame Princess. 

A proclamation had gone out, and all 
day long noblemen, knights, and ladies 
had driven up to the front door of the castle 
to bring good wishes to the little Princess. 
Many of them bore costly gifts. A little 
girl, poor and thinly clad, walked slowly 
towards the back gate of the castle. 

“How I wish I might take the Princess 
a gift,” she sighed. Then she saw the weed 
growing by the gate. 

“Oh, you beautiful flower,” cried the 
little girl. “You shall be my gift to the 
Princess.” 

The tall weed looked about, but saw no 
flower. It thought the little girl’s words 
very strange indeed. Surely she could not 
mistake it for a flower! The little girl came 
on straight towards it. How strange! 

When she had broken its strong stem 
and was dancing gaily towards the castle 


THE GOLD-DUST FLOWER 


207 


door, the weed whispered to itself: “It is 
very nice to be carried so proudly. Now I 
am glad she made the mistake, for now I 
know how pleasant it is to be a flower.” 



“Carried so proudly/’ 

And the weed never knew it was a flower 
until it saw its reflection in the mirror. It 
had been carried into the castle room with 
the nine windows, the one in which the lit- 



208 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

tie princess lay on her couch. The little 
girl herself had presented it to the Prin¬ 
cess, who had beamed with delight. It was 
then placed in a tall vase and set on a table 
piled with beautiful gifts. It was all very 
strange. Above the mantel it saw a beauti¬ 
ful blossom that spread out like the golden 
plume on a knight’s bonnet. 

“What can that beautiful thing be?” 
the weed wondered. Just then some one 
opened a door, and the draft set its head to 
nodding slightly. It saw the beautiful blos¬ 
som move, and then it knew it was looking 
into a mirror. At last the weed had become 
a flower! 

Because it held its golden head so 
straight and tall the Princess and the little 
girl called the flower the “Golden-rod,” 
but a certain little fairy always spoke of 
the weed that blossomed as the “Gold- 
dust” flower. 


CHAPTER XXII 


THE HAPPINESS FAIRY FINDS A HOME 

A TINY little Happiness fairy 
lived among the clouds, and as 
she floated about in the blue sky 
she would look down upon the beautiful 
forests and lakes of the earth. Sometimes 
the fairy saw unhappiness upon the earth, 
and it seemed to her that this should not 
be, since it was such a wonderful place to 
live. And thinking she might be able to 
point the way to more happiness, she 
gently floated down one day in search of a 
home. 

The Fairy Grandmother and her wood¬ 
land fairies and her garden fairies saw her 
coming. They met her with a hearty wel¬ 
come. 

“There is always need of more happi- 


209 



210 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

ness,” said Fairy Grandmother. “My little 
Fee-fee will help you find a home.” 

Very proud of her mission, Fee-fee led 
the little new fairy away. The trees were 
very lovely, the flowers bloomed, the warm 
sun shone down, and birds flitted from 
limb to limb. The Happiness fairy was 
sure she would find a home among all this 
beauty. She ran to a bush loaded down with 
blossoms. 

“Surely anything as beautiful as this 
will be happy, and I will make my home 
in the heart of a blossom.” 

But the tiny bush was weeping dewy 
tears. 

“I cannot be happy when I am so 
small,” sighed the bush. 

“You are not too small to make others 
happy, and that is the only way to find 
happiness for yourself,” replied the Hap¬ 
piness fairy. Just then a little rabbit, pant¬ 
ing and gasping for breath, ran towards 
them. 



The tiny bush hid the rabbit. 


211 







































212 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

“Here is a little rabbit in need of a hid¬ 
ing-place; give him one.” 

The tiny bush bent down her branches 
and hid the rabbit from a fox that was pass¬ 
ing. She said he might build his home 
there in that safe place, and he was happy. 
The tiny bush also felt happy, but the 
fairy had gone on in search of a home and 
did not know. 

A large nut-tree stood alone, reaching 
far above the bushes around it. 

“Surely this beautiful tree will be happy, 
for it gets all the sunshine,” said Fee-fee. 

But the big tree sighed and said, “I am 
too tall to play with the bushes, and the 
other trees are so far away I am lonely.” 

“You are not too tall nor too far awav 

J 

to make others happy,” the Flappiness 
fairy told him. “Why do you hold your 
nuts so tightly? Why do you not give some 
of them to the squirrels?” 

The big tree dropped its nuts, and the 
squirrels were soon running over it and 


THE HAPPINESS FAIRY FINDS A HOME 213 

feeding joyfully. The tree was no longer 
lonely, and wanted to tell the Happiness 
fairy how happy he was. But Fee-fee had 
taken her to the garden. 

“A little wren lives in a splendid house 
here in the garden,” said Fee-fee. “Surely 
a bird in so fine a house will be happy.” 

They found the little wren sitting 
silently on his porch. 

“Why do you not sing?” asked the Hap¬ 
piness fairy. “There is happiness in the 
song of a bird, and if you will only sing, 
perhaps I can live in your song.” 

“The sparrows have been trying to 
drive me from my fine home. How can 
I sing when the sparrows are so unkind 
to me?” 

“Try being kind to others,” advised the 
fairy. “See that little flower? It is trying 
to scatter its seed far and wide, so many 
more flowers will spring up; you can help 
that little flower.” 

“So I can.” The little wren took some 


214 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

of the seed in his mouth and flew with it 
to a place where the soil was rich. He 
dropped it there and covered it over with 
soft earth. Then he flew back for another 
seed. The garden fairies were thankful for 
his help, since it was a busy time, with so 
many seeds to be planted. As the little 
wren flew back and forth he suddenly be¬ 
gan to sing, for he was again happy. But 
the Happiness Fairy had gone on to the 
corner of the garden where the leaves 
danced merrily about. 

“Here I will find a home. The leaves 
have finished their work and are having a 
holiday.” She spoke to one of the leaves 
that chanced to dance near her, but found 
no true happiness there. 

“I am becoming wearied with dancing, 
and then what shall I do? I cannot go back 
to my place on the maple-tree. Oh, what 
shall Ido!” 

“If you will snuggle close to that violet 
plant, you will find happiness. The leaves 


THE HAPPINESS FAIRY FINDS A HOME 215 

that protect the plants from the winter 
never fail to find peace and rest.” 

The little leaf went to beg its sister 
leaves to help it make a blanket for the 
violet plant, but the fairies had not stayed. 
They were still wandering about the gar¬ 
den when they heard a merry laugh. 

“That,” explained Fee-fee, “is the little 
lame Princess. She has never walked in 
her lovely garden.” 

“And still she laughs?” 

Fee-fee nodded. “She is seldom sad, no 
matter how much she suffers.” 

“Then,” said the Happiness fairy, “I 
shall make my home with her. She is brave, 
and perhaps I can help make even the sad 
days glad.” She flew straight in at the win¬ 
dow, and, making herself very small, she 
cuddled down in the corner of the Prin¬ 
cess’ smile and went to sleep. There Fee- 
fee left her. 


CHAPTER XXIII 


THE WISHING-TREE 

“ H, Fairy Grandmother, what 

|| I do you think?” cried the little 
X. J fairy Fee-fee, as she ran into 
the nursery where all the other fairies had 
gathered after the day’s work and play. “I 
heard the little lame Princess say the 
strangest thing to-day. She said: ‘I wish, 
I wish, oh—I wish I had a wishing-tree.’ ” 
“What is a wishing-tree. Grand¬ 
mother?” all the little fairies asked to¬ 
gether. “Is it a fairy tree? Have we 
one?” 

“Yes, there is a wishing-tree in the far¬ 
away Land-by-the-Sea, but it has not been 
used for many a year. It is still there, I 
suppose, for it is a fairy tree, and should 
live forever. Wait until the fairy babies 

2l6 



THE fVISHING-TREE 


217 


are all tucked in and I will tell you about 
it.” 

The fairies ran about the nursery, help¬ 
ing to tuck in the babies; then they pulled 
their chairs close up to Grandmother’s 
rocker. 

“In that far-away Land-by-the-Sea there 
once lived a King who had a very won¬ 
derful garden. In this garden the little 
Prince played every day. The Prince was 
a weak, sickly child, and always had one 
of the pages from the castle to play with 
him and keep him from harm. The little 
Prince loved Jean best of all the pages. 
I do not know why, unless it was because 
Jean was kind and jolly,—or it might have 
been because he made up such lovely 
rhymes. He couldn’t help rhyming words. 
Almost everything he said turned out to 
be a rhyme, whether he meant it to be or 
not, and the little Prince loved rhymes. 

“One day Jean and the Prince had 
played and played until the little Prince 


218 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

was too tired to play longer. He was so 
weak that he could not jump over the 
smallest pansy plant. So Jean sat down 
under a large tree and took the little fel¬ 
low in his arms. He felt very sorry for the 
Prince, whose face was thin and white, 
and he said: 

‘Dear little Prince of the Land-by-the-Sea, 

I wish that you might stronger be.’ 

“Then the strangest thing in the world 
happened. The little Prince jumped up 
with pink cheeks and sparkling eyes, and 
raced around the garden so fast that it was 
hard for even Jean to catch him. And 
though he hadn’t been able to jump over 
the smallest pansy plant before, now he 
leaped over the tallest lilies. When the 
King and Queen saw him racing around, 
they didn’t know what to think. Of course 
they were delighted, and they immediately 
asked Jean how it happened. But Jean 


THE WISHING-TREE 


219 


himself didn’t know. You see, there had 
been a wishing-tree in that garden for 
years, and only the fairies had known 
about it until Jean happened to work the 
charm in the right way. He told the King 
and Queen just what he had done and 
what he had said, so they went into the gar¬ 
den to sit under the tree and make a wish. 
And with them went all the gentlemen and 
ladies of the court, the pages, the soldiers, 
and even the cooks. 

“The King sat down under the tree, just 
as Jean had done, and wished that he 
might have one hundred ships sailing 
upon the sea. The soldiers ran fast and 
looked over the garden wall, but not a ship 
did they see. Then the Queen sat down in 
the same place and wished that she might 
grow so beautiful that she would be 
spoken of as the handsomest woman in the 
world. But her face did not change. Her 
nose was just as long and just as crooked 
as it had been before. All the gentlemen 



It WAS HARD FOR JEAN TO CATCH HIM. 

220 








THE W1SHING-TREE 


221 


and the ladies of the court took turns sit¬ 
ting under the tree and wishing, and the 
pages tried it, but not a single wish came 
true. They wanted Jean to try again, so 
they could learn exactly how he did it, but 
Jean declared that he had nothing to wish 
for, now that the little Prince was well and 
strong. 

“Days and even weeks passed. Then 
one day Jean asked permission to go to see 
his mother, who lived in a village near the 
castle. Jean’s mother, who was very old, 
was alone in the world except for Jean. 
And when he went to see her he found that 
she had nothing in the house to eat and no 
money with which to buy food. 

“‘Ah, Jean, my boy, I wish that I had 
a bit of barley so that I might make a 
cake for you,’” mourned the old lady. 

“Jean at once thought of the wishing- 
tree,and he hurried to the castle to see 
if he could make a wish for his mother 
that would come true. The King 


222 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

and the Queen, the ladies and gentlemen 
of the court, the pages and the cooks went 
with him to the garden and watched 
closely. He took his seat under the tree 
and said: 

‘I wish that mother might have on her tray 

The food that she wishes for, every day.’ 

“The King took Jean in his carriage, 
which stood ready in the courtyard, and 
together they hurried to his mother’s cot¬ 
tage. They found her standing in amaze¬ 
ment before a tray filled with delicious 
food. 

“Then the King was sure that it was the 
rhyme that made the wish come true, and 
he asked Jean to put his wish in a rhyme. 
But, though Jean made very pretty rhymes 
for the King and for all the people of the 
court, not one single thing happened 
when they sat under the tree. 

“They thought that there must be some¬ 
thing very wonderful about Jean, since 


THE IVISHING-TREE 


223 


his wishes came true. The King made him 
a nobleman when he grew up. He became 
a very great man, and every one loved him, 
but Jean himself never knew why he was 
given his wish at the wishing-tree when all 
others failed. The fairies knew. And if any 
of you ever go to that garden in the Land- 
by-the-Sea, you will be able to read this 
written on the bark of the wishing-tree: 

‘Ask for others—and you’ll receive, 

Selfish folks can only grieve.’ 

“But of course,” the fairy Grandmother 
added, “mortals cannot see the words writ¬ 
ten there. They are only for fairy eyes.” 



CHAPTER XXIV 


A FAIRY AT PLAY 


E VERY morning the fairies danced 
among the clovers, for pink and 
white clover blossoms are the 
fairies’ honey-pots. Each tiny floweret 

l 

that forms the blossom holds enough 
honey to sweeten a fairy tea-cake, and 
the fairies like a bit of sweetening with 
their tea. 

There was one little fairy who always 
had to leave these jolly frolics before the 
dance was over. She was the Wake-up 
fairy. All the flowers were waiting for her 
to wake them up, and that was quite a task, 
especially on a rainy morning. 

“How I wish I could play all day long!” 
this little fairy often exclaimed. 

Now it happened that in the fall the lit- 


224 


A FAIRY AT PLAY 


225 


tie Wake-up fairy found she had nothing 
at all to do but play. Her work was fin¬ 
ished. The Sandman fairy was putting the 
flowers to sleep for the winter, and they 
were not to be called until spring came 
again. The Wake-up fairy danced among 
the clovers long after the others had gone 
to their work, and when this became tire¬ 
some she wandered over to the garden. 
There she found the Butterfly fairy wrap¬ 
ping lazy worms in little gray cases and 
hanging them upon the shrubs. She knew 
these worms, with the aid of fairy magic, 
would turn themselves into beautiful but¬ 
terflies when the spring Came again. , 

“Would you like to help me?” asked 
the Butterfly fairy when she saw the other 
little fairy standing idly by. 

“No, indeed. I am playing to-day.” 

“What are you playing?” 

“Oh, nothing much.” 

The Wake-up fairy wandered over to 
the stream, trying to decide what she did 


226 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

want to play. Here she found the Pussy¬ 
willow fairy sailing fairy boats down the 
stream. It was great fun. She was blowing 
the fluffy-tailed seeds of the cat-tail out 
upon the water and watching them float 
away. The Wake-up fairy joined her, and 
away raced their boats while the fairies 
danced in glee. 

“Isn’t this jolly work?” asked the Pussy¬ 
willow fairy, after a time. 

“Is this work?” 

“Yes, this is my work. The Fairy 
Grandmother said I might float the seeds 
down the stream so they may find a favor¬ 
able place to grow. What is the matter? 
Don’t you want to race seed-boats with me 
any more?” 

“No, thank you. I am not working to¬ 
day; my work is finished.” 

The Wake-up fairy went over to the 
fairy nursery, thinking she might be lucky 
enough to hear one of Fairy Grandmoth¬ 
er’s stories. But one of the baby fairies had 


A FAIRY AT PLAY 


227 


a high fever, and Fairy Grandmother was 
too busy to tell stories. 

“Careful nursing will make her well 
again,” Fairy Grandmother explained. 

The Wake -up fairy did not offer to help 
with the nursing, but wandered aimlessly 
on. Presently she hunted up the Bird 
fairy, who was very busy sending away to 
the south for the winter, the birds who 
loved to travel. The swallows, the wrens, 
the martins, the bluebirds, the orioles, and 
ever so many others, must be started at ex¬ 
actly the right time. 

“I really cannot stop to play,” said the 
Bird fairy. “I must show all the sparrows 
and the jay-birds where they can find win¬ 
ter food.” 

The Wake-up fairy was not having a 
very good time. In fact she was quite mis¬ 
erable. 

“I don’t believe the Bird fairy wanted 
to play with me,” she told herself crossly. 
And as she stood there wondering where 


228 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

she should go and what she should do, two 
squirrels came hurrying by. They were 
carrying nuts for their winter storehouses. 

“I don’t think much of folks who play 
around all fall when they should be gath¬ 
ering food,” said one of the squirrels. 

Now the squirrel was talking about the 
rabbits, that know food will be scarce in 
winter, yet refuse to worry about it. But 
the little fairy thought the squirrel was 
talking about her, and her feelings were 
hurt. She was more miserable than ever. 

“Please come and play with me,” she 
begged, when the Gold-dust fairy went 
hurrying by. 

“I can’t play now. But just as soon as I 
have finished my work I will play with 
you,” promised the Gold-dust fairy. 

At that moment the Wake-up fairy no¬ 
ticed a tall milkweed with its pods tight 
shut. She wondered why no one had been 
sent to open the seed-pods so the seeds 
could fly away. 


A FAIRY AT PLAY 


229 


“Perhaps Fairy Grandmother was so 
busy she forgot the milkweeds,” said the 
fairy. She decided to open them herself. 



It was fun to see the seeds go sailing away. 


This, she found, was great fun. She 
could never tell just how hard she would 
need to press before the seed-pod would 
spring open, and the sound of the “pop” 
always surprised her. And it was fun to see 
the little brown seeds, with their fluffy 






















230 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

wings, go sailing away in the breeze. 
Then the Wake-up fairy had an idea—she 
would plant those seeds herself and keep 
the fluffy part to make soft pillows for the 
baby fairies in the nursery. She was sing¬ 
ing happily when the Gold-dust fairy 
came back. 

“I am ready to play now. What shall we 
play?” 

“I am making little fluff pillows for the 
nursery,” said the Wake-up fairy. 

“That is a splendid idea. I will make 
them, too.” 

The little fairies were happily busy for 
some time when the Gold-dust fairy said, 
“This is the jolliest kind of work, isn’t it?” 

“Work!” exclaimed the Wake-up fairy. 
“Yes—oh, yes, it is jolly work. I—I think 
I like to work.” 


CHAPTER XXV 


GETTING READY FOR WINTER 

B UNNY should have known what 
was about to happen. If he had no¬ 
ticed all that went on around him, 
he would have known the summer was 
over, and would not have been so shocked 
when he discovered his little friends were 
leaving him. For many weeks the flowers 
had been busy growing seed. The cockle- 
burr had insisted that he carry one of her 
seed-children to a suitable growing spot, 
and he had not refused, though he did not 
like the prickly burrs. The thistle plant 
had given her seed-babies little wings, and 
Bunny watched them flying in the wind. 

All these things should have warned 
him that winter was coming, but he did 
not think of it until he saw Goldfinch 


231 


232 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

feasting on an apple. At first Bunny did 
not know him, for he was wearing a plain 
olive-gray suit. All summer he had worn 
a suit of bright yellow with sleeves and 
coat-tails of black, and a little black cap. 
He was beautiful then, but now one might 
easily pass by without noticing him. 

“Why are you wearing such dull 
clothes?” Bunny asked. 

“These are my traveling clothes. I shall 
be going south soon.” 

“You don’t mean it!” exclaimed Bunny. 
“Can it be that the summer is gone?” 

A leaf drifted down and struck him on 
the nose. Yes, it was true—the summer 
was gone. The trees were dropping their 
leaves, they had finished their work, and 
now they were going to sleep for several 
months, the leaves would not be needed. 
During the spring and summer each tree 
had added another ring to its trunk, and 
in the branch-cradles were the new leaf- 
buds waiting for the spring. The nut-trees 



GETTING READY FOR WINTER 


233 


had seed-babies ready to go out into the 
world as soon as Jack Frost loosened their 
outer blankets. Each seed-baby had a good 
lunch tucked away in its little basket, and 
all were anxious to be off. 

All this Bunny had known, but he had 
not realized that these things meant the 
coming of winter. That evening Hermit 
Thrush sang his farewell to the little lame 
Princess. Never had he trilled so beauti¬ 
fully as when he said his good-by, never 
had he sung so gayly as when he wished 
the Princess a happy winter and promised 
to return in the spring. 

As Bunny listened to the song he was 
thinking of the friends he was about to 
lose. Robin and Bluebird and all the other 
summer birds would go. Old Pop Toad 
would bury himself in the earth and sleep 
all winter. The butterflies, the moths, and 
the gay little fireflies would all disappear. 
The bat would hang himself upside down 
and forget about the garden until summer. 


234 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

But Chickadee would come back to the 
garden, and perhaps he would bring his 
cousin, Titmouse, with him. What a joy 
it would be to have those jolly little play¬ 
mates come back! And the sparrows and 
jaybirds were never so noisy and quarrel¬ 
some as in the winter. It would be fun to 
play with them. 

Bunny was feeling quite cheerful again 
when he started for the pool. The air was 
chill. He could feel it, even though he was 
wearing a much heavier coat. Jack Frost 
and his little elves might come that very 
night to paint the leaves a bright red-and- 
gold color. Cricket was at the pool, and 
because he did not like to hear Froggy 
sing, he was doing his best to keep him 
quiet. 

“He is hoarse,” complained the cricket. 
“If he keeps up that croaking when he has 
a cold, he will ruin his voice.” 

But the frog insisted that he was not 
hoarse. “Why should I take a cold? When 


GETTING READY FOR WINTER 


235 


I feel chilly I will sink deep into the mud 
at the bottom of the pool and sleep until 
spring.” 

“Very foolish, very foolish,” said 
Cricket. “I shall sleep a great deal myself, 
but only between times. The Princess has 
asked me to spend another winter on her 
hearth and sing a lullaby each evening 
for her.” 

The frog and the little rabbit did not 
believe this. The frog said there were other 
singers in the garden who had more won¬ 
derful voices than Cricket’s. Bunny re¬ 
minded them that the Princess had a ca¬ 
nary bird, a very pretty singer. 

“It is true the Princess has a canary,” 
said Cricket,” but he is an ill-mannered 
bird. He will not let me have water from 
the glass in his cage if he can help it, and 
water I must have.” 

Bunny said, quickly, “I thought you 
said the Princess gave you food and 
drink.” 


236 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

“She does do so. But unfortunately for 
me she puts the water in the canary’s cage, 
and I cannot get at it until he is asleep. 
When there is no water in the flower-pots, 
I am compelled to go thirsty. Further¬ 
more, the canary is always too sleepy to 
sing a lullaby, and I take the place of 
Flermit Thrush, who is going south, as 

vou well know.” 

0 

Now Cricket had only one tune, and 
Bunny could not understand why the little 
Princess should be so anxious to hear that 
one tune every evening. The canary and 
the thrush sang different tunes. 

The frog declared he had no desire to 
spend the winter in the castle, but he 
wanted some one to tell him why the Prin¬ 
cess had not chosen him to sing for her 
instead of the cricket. From a tree near by 
came the voice of a tree cricket. Then 
Katydid joined in. Both thought it would 
be a fine thing to have a contest and learn 


GETTING READY FOR WINTER 237 

why their cousin had been asked to the 
castle. 

So it was decided to hold a contest then 
and there. Already the moon was peeping 
up over the garden wall, and, with the 
lanterns of the fireflies, there was plenty 
of light. Old Pop Toad was asked to be 
the judge. He was a kind old fellow who 
had lived so long he had discovered it did 
not pay to talk too much. This was a lesson 
Cricket had not learned. 

Grasshopper was stopped on his way 
home and asked to enter the contest. He 
was rather sleepy, but he agreed to play 
one tune on his fiddle if they would allow 
him to play first. They agreed to this. 
Then Grasshopper folded away his flying 
wings and played a tune by rubbing the 
saw-like edges of his hind leg against the 
stiff cover of his flying wing. 

When he had finished Froggy sang 
his song. It was very long and it 


238 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

loud, for he wanted the little Princess to 
hear him. Before the last croak died away 
Katydid was playing. He could not wait 



Then Grasshopper played a tune. 

longer. Early in August, when he put on 
his last green suit, he discovered he could 
make a loud noise with the hard plates of 
his wing covers. After that he made his 
music every night, and it was very loud 

























GETTING READY FOR WINTER 


239 


music. There were some who thought it 
much too loud, and were glad when he had 
finished. 

The tree-cricket sang from his tree, for 
he seldom left the branches where he had 
been born. His little chirp was dainty, like 
himself, and very different from Katydid’s 
song. Last of all sang proud Cricket, who 
thought so well of himself. He rubbed his 
upper wings together so that the row of 
tiny hard ridges on one wing rubbed 
against hard wrinkles on the other. It was 
not an unpleasant song. Bunny thought 
Cricket might be right, and waited anx¬ 
iously for old Pop Toad to speak. 

The old fellow was silent some time. 
Then he said, “In the first place I find that 
Cricket does not sing. He fiddles. In the 
second place I am forced to say I find 
nothing unusual about his music. It is my 
opinion that the little Princess never in¬ 
vited Cricket to sit on her hearth and sing 
lullabies.” 


240 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

Cricket did no more boasting after that, 
but nevertheless, when Jack Frost came 
to the garden and peeped into the room 
with the nine windows, he saw Cricket sit¬ 
ting by the glowing fire. And Cricket was 
playing a lullaby on his little fiddle. 


CHAPTER XXVI 

MRS. CHIPMUNK’S THANKFUL GUEST 


J ACK FROST and his little elves had 
been very busy in the garden of 
the little lame Princess. They had 
painted the maples a deep red or a golden 
yellow. The oak-trees were given a dress 
of brown, and the hickory was a splash of 
yellow-brown. The birds feasted on the 
bright red haws still clinging to the haw¬ 
thorn-trees; then one by one they said 
good-by to the garden friends and started 
south. Chickadee came back to the garden 
and helped Bunny plan the winter’s fun. 
Jaybird at the last minute decided to store 
away some beechnuts in the hollow limb 
of a tree. Jack Frost had unlocked the little 
rooms that held the nuts and they came 
tumbling down from the trees. The squir- 

24I 


242 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

rels were getting their share of the beech¬ 
nuts and of the chestnuts which Jack Frost 
had also set free. 

Mrs. Chipmunk had wanted some of 
the chestnuts, but had not liked the prickly 
burrs. Now she swiftly carried them to her 
underground cellars where she stored her 
food for winter. Her home was under the 
root of the old oak-tree, and little passage¬ 
ways connected her home with her store¬ 
houses. She had worked hard during the 
late summer and fall, but now the cellars 
were full and she could shut herself away 
in her little house to eat or sleep as she 
chose. 

When the bright reds and yellows had 
faded to a dull brown, and no green re¬ 
mained in the garden except where the 
great pine stood, Mrs. Chipmunk came 
from her little home under the oak and 
looked about on a brown world. She was 
thinking how thankful she was to have all 
those good things stored away, and was 


MRS. CHIPMUNK'S THANKFUL GUEST 243 

wishing she might have a Thanksgiving 
dinner. She knew she would be asleep be¬ 
fore that time, and feared she might not 
wake on the proper day. 

“I know what I’ll do,” she said aloud. 
“I’ll have my Thanksgiving dinner to-day 
and invite the most thankful person I can 
find to share it with me.” 

The happy little chipmunk darted back 
into her house and set to work. She was a 
very quick little body. She brushed clean 
the flat rock which was her table, and then 
hurried to and fro with good things to eat. 
In the center of the table she placed a big 
round apple. It had taken her an afternoon 
to push that apple from the orchard to her 
little home under the oak, but she felt noth¬ 
ing was too good for the Thanksgiving 
dinner. Around the apple she piled hick¬ 
ory nuts, acorns, and yellow grains of 
corn. At the ends of the table she put seeds, 
wheat, and buckwheat. It was to be a real 
feast. Then Mrs. Chipmunk brushed her 


244 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

best dress—the one with the broad stripes 
down the back—and sat down on her 
doorstep to watch for a guest. 

In a short time she saw Tree-frog hop¬ 
ping down out of the tree. 

“How do you do, Tree-toad?” said she. 
“I suppose you have many things to be 
thankful for?” 

“Oh, I suppose so, but I have troubles 
enough. This chilly weather upsets me 
terribly. I am looking for a soft spot where 
I can bury myself and go to sleep. Then 
my troubles will be over until spring.” 

The toad hopped on down the path, 
looking very cross, and the bare, brown 
branches of the tree seemed to sigh and 
say: 

“All is brown, all is brown, 

And many a face wears a frown.” 

No sooner had the toad disappeared 
than Jaybird came along, wearing a warm 
coat of feathers. 


MRS. CHIPMUNK'S THANKFUL GUEST 245 

“Good morning, Jaybird. I suppose you 
are thankful for that warm coat?” 

“It doesn’t feel bad this cold weather, 
but I must say it’s going to be hard to find 
something to eat this winter. I wish I had 
as much put away as you have.” 

The jay flew away after more beech¬ 
nuts, and the old tree seemed to sigh and 
say: 

“All is brown, all is brown, 

In the trees and on the ground.” 

Next, frisky Mrs. Squirrel came run¬ 
ning down the path. Mrs. Chipmunk was 
certain she would be thankful, for she had 
a warm coat and plenty of food. 

“How do you do, Mrs. Squirrel. I know 
you must be very thankful for your warm 
coat and for the food you have stored 
away.” 

“Perhaps so, perhaps so, but I have been 
so busy I haven’t had time to think about 


246 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

Mrs. Squirrel went on her way, and the 
bare branches of the trees seemed to sigh 
and say: 

S 

“All is brown, all is brown, 

For some are always looking down.” 

Mrs. Chipmunk was beginning to think 
she was the only thankful person in the 
garden. She was just about to go in and 
eat her Thanksgiving dinner alone when 
she saw Granny Meadow Mouse hob¬ 
bling down the little brown path, leaning 
heavily on a walking-stick. Poor old 
Granny Meadow Mouse had no warm 
home, her fur coat was worn and old, and 
she was almost always hungry. Besides all 
this, she was badly crippled up with 
rheumatism. 

“Good morning, Granny,” said Mrs. 
Chipmunk. “I suppose you have very little 
to be thankful for this chilly morning.” 

“Indeed I have a great deal to be thank- 


MRS. CHIPMUNK'S THANKFUL GUEST 247 

ful for,” Granny smilingly replied. “I had 
such a good night’s rest last night, and one 
can always be thankful for that. I see the 
sun is about to come out, and I am thank¬ 
ful for that. I always feel so much better 
when the sun shines nice and warm.” 



She saw Granny Meadow Mouse. 


Mrs. Chipmunk jumped up and opened 
wide her door. “Come right in, Granny, 
you are the first cheerful person that has 
passed this way. I want you to come in and 
have Thanksgiving dinner with me. I am 


248 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

having it a bit early, for I may be asleep 
when the proper time comes. And 
Granny, it would make me very happy to 
have you spend the winter with me. I have 
more food stored up than I can use, and it 
does me good to talk to a cheerful person 
now and then.” 

“Why, it is good of you to ask me, Mrs. 
Chipmunk. And I would be so thankful 
to have a warm place to spend the winter.” 

As Mrs. Chipmunk closed the door be¬ 
hind her guest she thought she heard the 
bare branches say: 

“All is brown, all is brown, 

Yet some are thankful for a tattered gown.” 


CHAPTER XXVII 


A FROST ELF IN MISCHIEF 

F REEZE-UP was the name of the 
tiny frost elf who brought the big 
sleet storm to the garden of the 
little lame Princess. He was not a bad little 
rascal, but he certainly was full of mis¬ 
chief, and this time he unknowingly made 
the Princess, Bunny and Chickadee, all 
very unhappy. 

At first Jack Frost allowed him to paint 
some of the lovely winter gardens on the 
nine castle windows, that the Princess 
might not miss her summer garden. But 
Freeze-up loved to turn somersaults, and 
he stood on his head so much of the time 
that most of his garden pictures were up¬ 
side down. Because of this Jack Frost gave 
him a hammer instead of a paint-brush and 
set him to work in the garden. 


249 


250 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

It was his duty to break all the peach- 
stones the gardener had planted there, 
and the hard shells of the nuts. If these 
were not broken, the tender little shoots 
that waited to grow in the spring could not 
get out, and there would be no peaches or 
nuts for the Princess when the old trees 
died. When he had finished this task he 
found a little rosebush so crowded by 
a rock that it was beginning to grow 
crooked. Freeze-up determined to break 
the rock and give the bush room to stand 
up straight. Night after night he worked 
there. When he had made a tiny crack 
Jimmie Thaw came one day and filled 
it with water. This water Freeze-up 
promptly changed to ice. So, pushing with 
the ice and tapping with his hammer, he 
kept at it until the crack was large enough 
to give the bush room. 

Freeze-up was very proud of himself 
and of his little hammer. In looking about 
one night for something else to do he no- 


A FROST ELF IN MISCHIEF 


251 


ticed a crack under the pantry window. 
Now Freeze-up could stretch himself out 
like a thin sheet of rubber and then spring 
into his natural shape again. That is how 
he got into the pantry of the castle. And 
what a good time he had there! The castle 
cook had left a glass pitcher filled with 
water near the window. Freeze-up turned 
the water to ice, pounding on the pitcher 
to hear the merry, tinkling sound his ham¬ 
mer made. He pounded until, alas, the 
beautiful pitcher was broken from top to 
bottom. 

Not content with that, Freeze-up rushed 
to a plate of fruit and pounded until it was 
black and worthless. He broke a jug of 
milk and did other things just as bad, and 
these pranks that he considered so merry 
made the cook very angry when he discov¬ 
ered them the next morning. And when 
Jack Frost heard of them he took the ham¬ 
mer away from Freeze-up. 

“There are many ways to have a good 


252 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

time without making a bad time for some¬ 
one else,” he told the naughty elf. “I will 
let you tend the grass. In the spring the 
gardener will spade up the flower beds, 
but if he spaded the grass he would ruin it. 
Yet the dirt around the grass roots must be 
loosened or it cannot grow. You may take 
a tiny spade and work a little each night. 
In the day time Jimmie Thaw will help.” 

Now Freeze-up was very much afraid 
of Jimmie Thaw, and, strange to say, Jim¬ 
mie Thaw was just as much afraid of 
Freeze-up, the frost elf. Yet for a time they 
worked very well together and neither got 
a peep at the other. Freeze-up usually 
slipped away at sunrise and Jimmie Thaw 
hurried away as soon as the sun had set. 
There was much grass in the garden of 
the little lame Princess, and after a time 
Freeze-up grew tired of spading. 

He was trying to think of a way to get 
out of work when a cloud floated across 
the sky, shutting out the moonlight. 


A FROST ELF IN MISCHIEF 253 

Freeze-up flew to the cloud and anchored 
it there above the garden. Then opening 
the faucet in the bottom of the cloud a very 
little, he allowed a fine spray of rain to fall. 



The faucet in the cloud. 































254 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

He blew upon this with his icy breath un¬ 
til the grass, the trees, and the shrubs were 
covered with a thick sheet of ice. 

Freeze-up laughed in glee and stood on 
his head as much as he liked. His little 
spade could not cut through that sheet of 
ice, so there was no work to be done. Nor 
did he have to scamper away at sunrise, 
since Jimmie Thaw could not get through 
the cloud he had firmly anchored above 
the garden. It was very fine. There was 
nothing to do but turn somersaults. So he 
played until he found Chickadee and 
Bunny huddled under the rose-bush the 
next morning. He could not help noticing 
how sad they looked. 

“Are you too warm?” asked Freeze-up. 
The heat was the only thing that bothered 
the frost elf, so he supposed Bunny Puff¬ 
ball and the bird were too warm. They 
shook their heads. 

“We are hungry,” said Bunny. “We can 
find no breakfast.” 


A FROST ELF IN MISCHIEF 


255 


Wait a minute and I will fix you a nice 
snow pudding and an icicle pie.” But even 
as he spoke Freeze-up knew these things 
would not do for Chickadee, who loved 
the grubs and eggs of insects he usually 
found buried in the bark of trees; nor 
would they do for Bunny, who wanted 
nice tender bark to nibble. The sleet that 
gave the frost elf a holiday made it impos¬ 
sible for them to get their food. Even the 
food put out by the Princess was covered 
with a sheet of ice. 

“Come with me,” said the elf. “I think I 
can get you a breakfast and save my holi¬ 
day at the same time.” 

He went straight to the window of the 
lame Princess and squeezed himself under 
the window. He meant to pinch the nurse’s 
nose so hard that she would go to close the 
window tighter and would see the hungry 
bird and bunny. She would then throw out 
another carrot and a handful of fresh 
crumbs. That was the plan, but Freeze-up 


256 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

forgot it the moment he was inside the 
room. There, before his startled eyes, was 
the little lame Princess, and she was 
walking! 

Yes, she was really walking. To be sure, 
she was going very carefully from one 
chair to another, but she was walking, 
while the King, the Queen, and all the la¬ 
dies of the court clapped their hands joy¬ 
ously. The little lame Princess was no 
longer lame! 

Freeze-up was so surprised he almost 
melted away. He had known nothing of 
the strange doctors that came from a great 
distance, he knew nothing of the few steps 
that had been taken every day for a month 
or so. 

“Oh,” said the Princess, “this is the day 
the doctor said I might go out and walk in 
my garden.” 

But the nurse shook her head. “I know 
you are anxious to go out, but the walks 
are covered with sleet. If you should fall, 


A FROST ELF IN MISCHIEF 257 

all the good work of the doctors would be 
undone. We must wait a few days.” 

Freeze-up saw how disappointed the lit¬ 
tle Princess was. He slipped under the 
window, and just in time, for his feet had 
melted down to sharp points and he had to 
stop and pat them into shape. 

“Did you get something for us to eat?” 
asked Bunny. 

“Just you wait until my feet freeze solid 
again and there will be food. There will be 
something else, too,—the biggest surprise 
you ever heard of.” 

He would not stay to tell them more. 
Quickly he unfastened the cloud so Jim¬ 
mie Thaw could get through, and then hid 
himself under a big rock. From this safe 
place he watched while the work he had 
been so proud of was undone. Jimmie 
Thaw worked fast, and soon the sleet was 
gone. Chickadee was swinging from a 
branch and picking at the good things he 
found there. Bunny was nibbling at tender 


258 GARDEN OF THE LITTLE LAME PRINCESS 

twigs, now free of ice. But suddenly they 
stopped and forgot about being hungry. 
From the castle room with the nine win¬ 
dows came the little Princess, and she was 
walking! 

“Oh!” cried Bunny, and he began to 
hop about her in circles to show how glad 
he was. “Chick-a-dee, chick-a-dee-dee,” 
sang the bird. The sparrows twittered their 
delight and the Jaybird yelled, “Fine, fine, 
fine!” 

“What a surprise!” said Bunny. “What 
will Robin and Froggy say? Oh, I wish we 
could tell them now.” 

It seemed almost too good to be true, but 
when the flowers bloomed again in the 
garden the little Princess would walk 
among them. How they would bloom! 
How the birds would sing! What a glo¬ 
rious thing it was to live in the garden of 
the little lame Princess, now no longer 
lame! 

All were happy, but none so happy as 


A FROST ELF IN MISCHIEF 


259 


Freeze-up, who hid under the big rock. 
He wanted to get out and turn somer¬ 
saults, but he was afraid of Jimmie Thaw. 
When the sun had set he turned as many 
as he liked for pure joy, then he went to 
work with his little spade. He did not mind 
working now, for he wanted the grass to 
be very pretty in the spring when the Prin¬ 
cess walked in the garden. Freeze-up 
sometimes got into mischief after that, but 
he was careful to bring no more sleet 
storms to the garden of the little Princess. 


THE END 









t 













